note tfrayner Thanks, that's a huge improvement. I'm afraid I've discovered another slight wrinkle, though: <code> use strict; use Text::CSV_XS; use IO::File; $/ = "\r"; my $f = IO::File->new_tmpfile; print $f ('a,b,c', $/, '"d","e","f"', $/); seek($f,0,0); my $c = Text::CSV_XS->new({ eol => $/ }); for(0..1){ print join("|",@{ $c->getline($f) })."\n" } </code> The first getline works, but the second fails. It looks as though the quote characters are blocking recognition of \r as eol (again, the code here works if $/="\n"). <p> Cheers, <p> Tim 617577 618349