>I see. Was the example just done the way it is to confuse, or is there a purpose for doing so that I am missing? On reading more carefully I see that the in/out arrays are different, but why the "@" in both cases?

Because it's required in both places. When you pass an array as parameter, you have to pass by reference or only the first element is passed. To return an array from a function or method, you put the "@" in front of it - that's the syntax.

Sorry that the example was confusing. I was trying to show a real example of something you might do and returning both the row and column subscripts of an array element seemed like a good example.

Tamar