A couple of weeks ago I posed a programming question: given a list of objects, a,b,c,d,e,... what is the best way (speed, non-recursive cobol code) to go about finding every possible combination of objects where objects can be combined together in groups from 1 object to 3 objects, ie, possibilities would include, a, b+g, c+f+h, c, d+e, g, and so forth. The idea was to optimize objects so that they would fit certain given sizes with most minimal deviation. I wanted to thank the two people who responded with suggestions. By implementing a table, or queue, where each level consisted of 1 to 3 objects, and where each level would move through its possibilities (when lowest level finished with all possibilities, then, completely done), waiting for all subsequent levels to finish their possibilities, and by carefully eliminating duplicates, and groupings of objects that failed to meet certain tests, I was able to make this work for object lists of up to 60 or so objects. Mel Bartels programmer/technical analyst Willamette Ind. Eugene Oregon