tony summerfelt wrote: > gah, ruby is doing it to me again: > > logline=String.new("+ 30 Jan 12:20:09 [3988] addr: x.x.x.x") > tda=Array[(logline.split(/\[\d+\]/))] tda=logline.split(/\[\d+\]/) > tda.first > > is it too much to assume that the string is split using [xxxx] as a demliter > and that tda.first should return "+ 30 Jan 12:20:09"? Now tda.first returns "+ 30 Jan 12:20:09 ". That help?