dear list on-topic for mpe folks migrating to hp-ux. i was just looking at the mpe to hp-ux commands crossref at http://invent9k.external.hp.com/~csy/cmds.cgi and had a question ('a' question??? yeah, right, the first of many, i'm sure). it shows that the alpha function on mpe can be done using grep, but i can't figure out how to go about this. specifically, the alpha function on mpe works on a string, but the grep command expects a file as its input. i'm not sure how to: 1) grep for alpha only characters (i'm thinking that something like [A-Z | a-z] is needed, but i'm not sure of the exact syntax), and 2)get grep to look at a string and evaluate just that string. can anyone give some pointers? thanks! john maclerran [log in to unmask] * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *