It may not be stopping where you think. Try flushing r1, or use a debugger to step through the code.. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo at metalab.unc.edu Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003) http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0321150406/ref%3Dnosim/cafeaulaitA