VBGamer

To add a little to this, there is actually no need to set the length of the string, however space can be wasted if you don't. It all depends on how you read/write the file. When you write a variable length string using "put" a length descriptor is also written. Most people try to actually tell the get function where to read the data from, but actually (i dont know if you are doing this) there is no need. Example : Dim lngVal as Long Dim intVal as Integer Dim strVal as String lngVal = 2982302 intVal = 2356 strVal = "This is a test string so there" Open "MyFile.dat" for binary access write as #1 put #1, , lngVal put #1, , intVal put #1, , strVal Close #1 'File is now written, blank the vars and read back in in the same order lngVal = 0 intVal = 0 strVal = "" Open "MyFile.dat" for binary access read as #1 get #1, , lngVal get #1, , intVal get #1, , strVal Close #1 msgbox strVal 'Output is This is a test string so there If you are doing it like this, try pasting the code here so we can help a little more. HTH (and sorry to contradict you lucky !!) Adam