Thanks all for your help on this, I have what I need now,
( well it works for the database I`m writing. )
I wonder also...
( various questions - just for some ideas

)
is there an easy way fo editing a data string ?
for example, .
data 1,2,3,4,5,6
can I add to it ?
data 1,2,3,4,5,6,user input,user input,user input??
and ( I havent tried this yet - just a question off the top of my head ) - can you count how many items are in a labeled data string?
so all-in-all, is it possible to alter the contents/size of a data string and keep track of its size?
would this be done with an array ?
can you alter the size of an array ? - I have figured out how to fill up blank spaces in an array..
so if there is an array with 10 entries, but item 2,5&7 are empty, all the other data will move `up` the array to fill the empty spaces,
but how would I remove empty spaces at the end of the array, by effectivley changing the arrays size?
Simon