On Sun I get... IN IN On AIX I get... IN IN On webhost (?LINUX? I suppose) I get... IN OUT Arhhhhhhhhgggg!!!!! #!/bin/ksh X=3DOUT for i in 1 2 3 do case ${i} in 1) X=3DIN ;; esac done echo ${X} X=3DOUT echo "1\n2\n3" > cat.file cat cat.file | while read i do case ${i} in 1) X=3DIN ;; esac done echo ${X} -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l