Here is my issue: I have two files - call them big.txt and small.txt. My goal is to have a list file and remove any lines in the big file that exist. Big.txt is a tab del file with the following info 11 Fred Flinestone Bedrock,Il 12 Wilma Flinestone Bedroc, Il small.txt is a tab del file - following information 12 23 32 23 I would like to scan big.txt against small.txt to get a final file good.txt - with the following 11 Fred Flinestone Bedrock,Il regards, matt -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.