hi. i am sorry that i didnt give more info in the beginning. i was hoping that there would be a simple solution.....i am new to vb, but it seems like vb has simple solutions for everything....

anyway, my file is arranged like so:
3-4 short lines of text (varies)
n number of comma delimited lines (n depending on the number of open orders)
3-4 short lines of text (varies)
n number of comma delimited lines (n depending on the number of closed orders)

i was hoping to have an easy solution to do the following:

read a line.
parse the line by commas
fi the number of fields = 12 then i care about the info....but if not, then i would just go on.

i dont like the idea of counting quotes and commas because one of the fields is a comments field....and you never know what a user will put in that.....maybe he closes the quotes and maybe he doesnt.

further, unfortunately, i cannot change the output of the file....what i have is what i have to work with

earlier, somebody had mentioned that i do something with ado. given my circumstances is this my best option?

thanks so much for your help. i really do appreciate it.