BRILLIANT!
thanks rick.

k

>>I have a long text that i want to shorten to another text file mytext.txt TO mytext2.txt (short version)
>>i would like to remove everything before the symbol >>__________ below in mytext2
>>
>>so in brief:
>>mytext.txt is complete, mytext2.txt shows everything AFTER the '>>__________' symbol that appears in mytext.txt
>>
>>any suggestions on the shortest possible route to do this would be appreciated.
>
>
>If you always know your search string will be in there, maybe something like:
>

>lcFullData  = filetostr("mytext.txt")
>lcNeedle    = ">>__________"
>lcShortData = right(lcFullData, LEN(lcFullData) - AT(lcNeedle, lcFullData) - LEN(lcNeedle))
>strtofile(lcShortData, "mytext2.txt")
>

>
>??
>
>You could shorten it slightly, but I think it might be harder to read/follow:
>

>lcFullData  = filetostr("mytext.txt")
>strtofile(right(lcFullData, LEN(lcFullData) - AT(">>__________", lcFullData) - LEN(">>__________")), "mytext2.txt")
>