thanks Naomi. clean and neat - works perfectly I just have to make sure there is a dot at the end of the chain.

k

>>I am going through a list of numbers as character string separated by periods - 04.05.10.11.12.100.101.104. etc and run into a problem when I reach 100+
>>my search for 10 comes up true when it comes across 100.
>>my search for 04 comes up true when it comes across 104 - so adding a dot after the search will not help.
>>
>>Is there a way to tighten up the code to get the query to reject these without my having to write qualifying if clauses after these searches.
>>thanks for any suggestions
>>k
>>
>>

>>num="100"
>>if '10' $ num
>>wait window 'I want this to show .f.'
>>endif
>>
>>**** same issue here with dot added to search
>>
>>num="104."
>>if '04.' $ num
>>wait window 'I want this to show .f.'
>>endif
>>
>>
>>
>>

>
>

>
>if ('.' + DesiredNum + '.')  $ ( '.' + num + '.')
>    number found
>else
>   exact number not found