note blahblahblah Good point. I've tried the 3 methods below: <code> if ($x =~ /\s/) </code> and <code> if (substr($x, -1) =~ /^\s/ </code> and <code> if (rindex($x," ") == 0 || rindex($x,"\r") == 0 || rindex($x,"\n") == 0 || rindex($x,"\t") == 0) </code> The rindex method is much faster on the data that has spaces; otherwise the substr method is the fastest. Any other good ideas, keeping in mind that the data (I think) won't often contain any trailing spaces? 782077 782116