perfect Neil thanks,
have you considered a career in programming? :-)
Cheers
~M
Mark,
You could try the following.
if (textBox1.Text.CompareTo("") == 0)
textBox1.Text = "Empty";
This does not take into account the field containing spaces, these can be removed using something like textBox1.Text.Trim().
HTH
Neil
Go raibh maith agat
~M