To all who answered my question about fast file checking, thank you.
To anyone interested, I tested Jeff Vance's solution using CI
programming against Mark Bixby's solution using GREP with the
following results (bearing in mind that I used the HPCPUMSECS variable
for timing and all sorts of other factors like load times etc are
involved):

Using a 500 record file with a record length of 50 bytes :

On a 935 : CI version : 16,508 msecs, Grep version : 1,103 msecs

On a 967 : CI version : 3,746 msecs,  Grep version : 377 msecs.

I think I'll stick with Grep.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

John Dunlop

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