typomaniac - 1:29 am on Jul 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

Thanks Rocknbil, Perl forever--I started out late in the game and its the only thing I know. Thanks for the input--I'll give all a try.
btw.....table was not really the name of the table and column was not really the name of the column and $_[0] was a value coming into the sub routine. Its the only value coming in but would still be easy to give it a different name. Been pretty lucky on the script because in all the subs the variables mean the same in each and are in the same order.