The regex lib, now has experimental support for perl style forward lookahead assertions, using the syntax extensions: (?=exp) positive zero width forward assertion on exp. (?!exp) negative zero width forward assertion on exp. I'm currently looking for anyone willing to test these, and for real world test cases to add to the regression tests, before documenting the extensions and making them "official". Many thanks. - John Maddock http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/john_maddock/