note tilly I had to rename the function, but I get 38. It would be shorter, but I added 3 chars to make it run under 5.6, and added 2 more for a bug fix. Plus the obligatory 5 for a private variable.<P> So if I was a careless lout, I could claim 28, but I am not... <code> sub r {my$s;$s.=chop for@_=@_;$s.0?(&r,$s):()} </code> <P> <B>UPDATE</B><BR> D'oh. [MeowChow] is right. I need the private variable. 67973 67973