note dragonchild I know that I've started to do something like: <p><code>sub foo { local $_; my ($var1, $var2) = @_; ... } </code> <p>in all my personal "production-level" code. (I'm an avid user of $_.) While this can result in a slight performance hit, I change my personal code around enough that have that template just makes me feel safer about using $_. <p>Just a suggestion. :) 96369 96369