note bart If you can't have it die, you can make it do that if [split] splits into only one part. <c> (my ($s, $a, $c, $r) = split /[,\t]/) == 1 and die; </c> or, alternatively, you can do <c> die if not defined $a; </c> <u>edit</u> code fixed, thanks [ColonelPanic] 1006854 1006854