>>>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

>
>This might have problems with the first item since the string does not start with a dot. Needs some additional handling, or a regexp.
>
>An other approach would be to use ALINES() followed by ASCAN()

good point lutz - I had forgotten about the start of the string with Naomi's solution. I will give alines a try in one of my procedures and see which one comes up with the first error. thanks all for your input.