thanks, both instances (in vba and out) are helpful. thanks.

I was wanting to do this in vba as i am reading the file in via vba and i wanted to keep all the "work" in vba but its nice to know i can do this outside vba as well. So thanks.

fyi: when i click on the get data button the macro has some issues running but if i go into the code and run it from there it works..........as i was hoping it would so thanks!!!!!!!!!!