greetings my script ing is a little rusty. i am trying to read one file and compare the two with a text output of my matches. -- make any sence ? file 1 has one string of numbers 12345 12346 12347 12348 file 2 has numbers and letters 12345 apple 12346 fruit 12347 beef 12348 mustbelunchtime I can run a simple shell grep on a terminal to find the letters that correspond to the number example: grep 12345 file1 >> /path/tomyfile i thought i would get cute and simplify this process by using applescript but my syntax is not correct, set IDlist to every paragraph of (read (choose file)) repeat with aID in IDlist try set ID_result to (do shell script "grep " & aID & " /Users/drfoo/ Desktop/filewithletters") if ID_result is not "" then set the_file1 to ("FOOHD:Users:drfoo:scripts:HERE:" as Unicode text) & "Checkit" set fRef to (open for access file the_file1 with write permission) try get eof of fRef write return & ID_result to fRef starting at eof write return end try close access fRef end if end try end repeat ----------------------------------- jeff donovan /∆\ basd network operations \V/ (610) 807 5571 x41 (x) AIM xtdonovan // \\