Carl, I'm resubmitting part of my previous post, which some additions, which I will identify as "NEW" or "<==NEW" Carl, this would be my analysis. Short on time now, so short explanation Let me define some symbol markers that I can insert in the text, to show various things. these symbols are not actually inserted, they are added to the display just to show the various points indicated. as defined by the buffer that scanning is occurring in, and what is being scanned. (The '$' DOES represent actual data that is present.) <==NEW First example, various phases (1) [<SV01,BF x>]<PV01><EX>$# <==UPDATED, added '$' (2) <SV01,BF x>[<PV01>]<EX>$# <==UPDATED (3) 01= [BF xx]# (4) <SV01,BF xx<PV01>[<EX>]$# <==NEW NEW scanning the EX statement. In my previous accounting, without showing the EOF characters, the ']' and '#' would have appeared at the same location, because there is no '$' to separate them. Since this is a scan for matching '>', this would cause an error, were it not for the presence of the EOF. If you have a way to edit your file containing the test string, and remove the EOF from the file before running your test, my bet is that you will get an error, and the string "<EX>" will also be shown at the bottom of the screen as rejected "junk" [the rest of the previous post has been deleted] Wally