Data and code as promised: #Creating a test dataset Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake4<- c(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 250, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 239, 255) mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3, Lake4) #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs y<- mydata[,2:5] year <- mydata$Year regimeshift <- data.frame() for (i in 1:4){ tryCatch({ y.val <- y[,i] lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) print(regimeshift) }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) } Bailey From: Daniel Nordlund <djnordlund at gmail.com> Sent: May 22, 2018 3:06 PM To: Bailey Hewitt; Bert Gunter Cc: r-help at R-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop ? On 5/22/2018 11:32 AM, Bailey Hewitt wrote:> Hi Bert, > > Thank you for the quick response! > > In its current?state?the code?prints three lines that say "warning". What I was expecting is that I would?get?a matrix with 4 columns, 1. column names (from the original data, ex. Lake1) 2. breakpoint year 3. slope 4. slope difference from the first to the?second segment of the segmented regression. Each row in the matrix would be the results of the segmented regression test for each lake in the original data frame, so?Lake1 results would be in row 2 (row 1 would be titles) and so on. If any of?this is confusing please let me know and I will clarify! > > Thanks! > > Bailey > > > > > From: Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com> > Sent: May 22, 2018 2:13 PM > To: Bailey Hewitt > Cc: r-help at R-project.org > Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop >???? > > > > Others may have greater insight, but my response is: Exactly what did or didn't happen that makes you say the code didn't work? That is, what did or didn't you get when you ran it compared to your expectations? > >?? Cheers, >?? Bert > > > > > > > Bert Gunter > > "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and sticking things into it." > -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip ) >?? > > On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 10:55 AM, Bailey Hewitt? <bailster at hotmail.com> wrote: >?? Hello All, > > I have been trying to use a for loop to run segmented regressions (from?R package segmented)?on many columns? of data in a data frame with the end goal of writing a new file with the following columns: column title, breakpoint year, slope, and difference in? slope. Unfortunately, when one of the columns doesn't have a breakpoint the code stops and provides?an error or warning. I would like the loop to keep running regardless of the error/warning but I want it to write that it did encounter an error or warning.? Based on my needs I found that tryCatch appears to do what I need. I have looked at multiple examples, blogs, etc. as well as gone over the documentation and Hadley Wickham's document in Advanced R but I am still a novice when it comes to coding and I am having? a hard time getting the code to work properly. Below is the code I have developed thus far (with a test dataset as an example): > > #Creating a test dataset > Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) > Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1) > Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2) > Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1) > mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3) > > #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs > y<- mydata[,2:4] > year <- mydata$Year > regimeshift <- data.frame() > for (i in 1:3){ >? ? tryCatch({ >? ? ? y.val <- y[,i] >? ? ? lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) >? ? ? seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) >? ? ? RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] >? ? ? SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] >? ? ? SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] >? ? ? new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) >? ? ? rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] >? ? ? regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) >? ? ? print(regimeshift) >? ? }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, >? ? ? warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) > } > > Any ideas or suggestions you might have are greatly?appreciated! > > Bailey Hewitt > PhD Candidate > York University > Ontario, CanadaMy suggestion is that you get your code to work on a single iteration before running in a loop and wrapping the code in tryCatch I ran your "set-up" code (before the loop).? then extracted your code from the loop, set i <- 1, and then ran the code.? Here is what I got: ?> i <- 1 ?>???? y.val <- y[,i] ?>???? lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) ?>???? seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) Warning message: No breakpoint estimated ?>???? RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] ?>???? SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] ?>???? SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] Error in summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3, 1] : subscript out of bounds ?>???? new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) Error in data.frame(RSyear = RSyear, SlopeRegime1 = SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff = SlopeDiff) : ?? object 'SlopeDiff' not found ?>???? rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] Error in rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] : ?? object 'new.regimeshift' not found ?>???? regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) Error in rbind(regimeshift, new.regimeshift) : ?? object 'new.regimeshift' not found ?>???? print(regimeshift) the immediate problems that show up are 1.? there is no variable psi the summary(seg.reg) object (RSyear is NULL). 2.? the coefficients[] matrix in the summary(seg.reg) object does not have 3 rows, so you get an error and SlopeDiff is not created. You need to correct these problems, and any others, so that your code runs correctly when there are no data problems.? Then you can worry about trapping errors in the case where there are data problems. Hope this is helpful, Dan -- Daniel Nordlund Port Townsend, WA? USA
No. If your ouput is a numeric "matrix", it cannot include alpha. Columns in a data frame can be of different classes, but each column must be single class. and finally, of course, see ?cat -- I think you are misusing it. If you simply want to return "somestuff", your function should be: function(w) {"somestuff"} not function(w) {cat("somestuff")} As usual, apologies if I have misunderstood. Caveat emptor. Cheers, Bert Bert Gunter "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and sticking things into it." -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip ) On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 1:11 PM, Bailey Hewitt <bailster at hotmail.com> wrote:> Data and code as promised: > > #Creating a test dataset > Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, > 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) > Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) > Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) > Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) > Lake4<- c(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 250, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 239, 255) > mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3, Lake4) > > #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs > y<- mydata[,2:5] > year <- mydata$Year > regimeshift <- data.frame() > for (i in 1:4){ > tryCatch({ > y.val <- y[,i] > lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) > seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control > seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) > RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] > SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] > SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] > new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, > SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) > rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] > regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) > print(regimeshift) > }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, > warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) > } > > Bailey > > > > > From: Daniel Nordlund <djnordlund at gmail.com> > Sent: May 22, 2018 3:06 PM > To: Bailey Hewitt; Bert Gunter > Cc: r-help at R-project.org > Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop > > > On 5/22/2018 11:32 AM, Bailey Hewitt wrote: > > Hi Bert, > > > > Thank you for the quick response! > > > > In its current state the code prints three lines that say "warning". > What I was expecting is that I would get a matrix with 4 columns, 1. column > names (from the original data, ex. Lake1) 2. breakpoint year 3. slope 4. > slope difference from the first to the second segment of the segmented > regression. Each row in the matrix would be the results of the segmented > regression test for each lake in the original data frame, so Lake1 results > would be in row 2 (row 1 would be titles) and so on. If any of this is > confusing please let me know and I will clarify! > > > > Thanks! > > > > Bailey > > > > > > > > > > From: Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com> > > Sent: May 22, 2018 2:13 PM > > To: Bailey Hewitt > > Cc: r-help at R-project.org > > Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop > > > > > > > > > > Others may have greater insight, but my response is: Exactly what did or > didn't happen that makes you say the code didn't work? That is, what did or > didn't you get when you ran it compared to your expectations? > > > > Cheers, > > Bert > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Bert Gunter > > > > "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along > and sticking things into it." > > -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip ) > > > > > > On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 10:55 AM, Bailey Hewitt <bailster at hotmail.com> > wrote: > > Hello All, > > > > I have been trying to use a for loop to run segmented regressions > (from R package segmented) on many columns of data in a data frame with > the end goal of writing a new file with the following columns: column > title, breakpoint year, slope, and difference in slope. Unfortunately, > when one of the columns doesn't have a breakpoint the code stops and > provides an error or warning. I would like the loop to keep running > regardless of the error/warning but I want it to write that it did > encounter an error or warning. Based on my needs I found that tryCatch > appears to do what I need. I have looked at multiple examples, blogs, etc. > as well as gone over the documentation and Hadley Wickham's document in > Advanced R but I am still a novice when it comes to coding and I am > having a hard time getting the code to work properly. Below is the code I > have developed thus far (with a test dataset as an example): > > > > #Creating a test dataset > > Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) > > Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1) > > Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2) > > Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1) > > mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3) > > > > #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs > > y<- mydata[,2:4] > > year <- mydata$Year > > regimeshift <- data.frame() > > for (i in 1:3){ > > tryCatch({ > > y.val <- y[,i] > > lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) > > seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control > = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) > > RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] > > SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] > > SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] > > new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, > SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) > > rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] > > regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) > > print(regimeshift) > > }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, > > warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) > > } > > > > Any ideas or suggestions you might have are greatly appreciated! > > > > Bailey Hewitt > > PhD Candidate > > York University > > Ontario, Canada > > My suggestion is that you get your code to work on a single iteration > before running in a loop and wrapping the code in tryCatch > > I ran your "set-up" code (before the loop). then extracted your code > from the loop, set i <- 1, and then ran the code. Here is what I got: > > > i <- 1 > > y.val <- y[,i] > > lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) > > seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, > control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) > Warning message: > No breakpoint estimated > > RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] > > SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] > > SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] > Error in summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3, 1] : subscript out of bounds > > new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, > SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) > Error in data.frame(RSyear = RSyear, SlopeRegime1 = SlopeRegime1, > SlopeDiff = SlopeDiff) : > object 'SlopeDiff' not found > > rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] > Error in rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] : > object 'new.regimeshift' not found > > regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) > Error in rbind(regimeshift, new.regimeshift) : > object 'new.regimeshift' not found > > print(regimeshift) > > the immediate problems that show up are > 1. there is no variable psi the summary(seg.reg) object (RSyear is NULL). > 2. the coefficients[] matrix in the summary(seg.reg) object does not > have 3 rows, so you get an error and SlopeDiff is not created. > > You need to correct these problems, and any others, so that your code > runs correctly when there are no data problems. Then you can worry > about trapping errors in the case where there are data problems. > > Hope this is helpful, > > Dan > > -- > Daniel Nordlund > Port Townsend, WA USA > >[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
Ah ok?this solves it for me, thank you!? Bailey From: Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com> Sent: May 22, 2018 4:42 PM To: Bailey Hewitt Cc: Daniel Nordlund; r-help at R-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop ? No. If your ouput is a numeric "matrix", it cannot include alpha. Columns in a data frame can be of different classes, but each column must be single class. and finally, of course, see ?cat -- I think you are misusing it. If you simply want to return "somestuff", your function should be: function(w) {"somestuff"} not function(w) {cat("somestuff")} As usual, apologies if I have misunderstood. Caveat emptor. Cheers, Bert Bert Gunter "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and sticking things into it." -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip ) On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 1:11 PM, Bailey Hewitt <bailster at hotmail.com> wrote: Data and code as promised: #Creating a test dataset Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 1, 2) Lake4<- c(1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 250, 240, 240, 240, 240, 240, 239, 255) mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3, Lake4) #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs y<- mydata[,2:5] year <- mydata$Year regimeshift <- data.frame() for (i in 1:4){ ? tryCatch({ ? ? y.val <- y[,i] ? ? lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) ? ? seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) ? ? RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] ? ? SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] ? ? SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] ? ? new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) ? ? rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] ? ? regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) ? ? print(regimeshift) ? }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, ? ? warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) } Bailey From: Daniel Nordlund <djnordlund at gmail.com> Sent: May 22, 2018 3:06 PM To: Bailey Hewitt; Bert Gunter Cc: r-help at R-project.org Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop ? On 5/22/2018 11:32 AM, Bailey Hewitt wrote:> Hi Bert, > > Thank you for the quick response! > > In its current?state?the code?prints three lines that say "warning". What I was expecting is that I would?get?a matrix with 4 columns, 1. column names (from the original data, ex. Lake1) 2. breakpoint year 3. slope 4. slope difference from the first to the?second? segment of the segmented regression. Each row in the matrix would be the results of the segmented regression test for each lake in the original data frame, so?Lake1 results would be in row 2 (row 1 would be titles) and so on. If any of?this is confusing please? let me know and I will clarify! > > Thanks! > > Bailey > > > > > From: Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com> > Sent: May 22, 2018 2:13 PM > To: Bailey Hewitt > Cc: r-help at R-project.org > Subject: Re: [R] Using tryCatch in a for loop >???? > > > > Others may have greater insight, but my response is: Exactly what did or didn't happen that makes you say the code didn't work? That is, what did or didn't you get when you ran it compared to your expectations? > >?? Cheers, >?? Bert > > > > > > > Bert Gunter > > "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and sticking things into it." > -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip ) >?? > > On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 10:55 AM, Bailey Hewitt? <bailster at hotmail.com> wrote: >?? Hello All, > > I have been trying to use a for loop to run segmented regressions (from?R package segmented)?on many columns? of data in a data frame with the end goal of writing a new file with the following columns: column title, breakpoint year, slope, and difference? in? slope. Unfortunately, when one of the columns doesn't have a breakpoint the code stops and provides?an error or warning. I would like the loop to keep running regardless of the error/warning but I want it to write that it did encounter an error or warning.?? Based on my needs I found that tryCatch appears to do what I need. I have looked at multiple examples, blogs, etc. as well as gone over the documentation and Hadley Wickham's document in Advanced R but I am still a novice when it comes to coding and I am having?? a hard time getting the code to work properly. Below is the code I have developed thus far (with a test dataset as an example): > > #Creating a test dataset > Year<- c(2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) > Lake1<- c(2, 4, 5, 2, 1) > Lake2<- c(1, 3, -1, 4, -2) > Lake3<- c(1, 2, 5, -3, 1) > mydata<- data.frame(Year, Lake1, Lake2, Lake3) > > #Running a for loop that indicates when an error or warning occurs > y<- mydata[,2:4] > year <- mydata$Year > regimeshift <- data.frame() > for (i in 1:3){ >? ? tryCatch({ >? ? ? y.val <- y[,i] >? ? ? lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) >? ? ? seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) >? ? ? RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] >? ? ? SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] >? ? ? SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] >? ? ? new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) >? ? ? rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] >? ? ? regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) >? ? ? print(regimeshift) >? ? }, error= function(e) {cat("Error", "\n")}, >? ? ? warning= function(w) {cat("Warning", "\n")}) > } > > Any ideas or suggestions you might have are greatly?appreciated! > > Bailey Hewitt > PhD Candidate > York University > Ontario, CanadaMy suggestion is that you get your code to work on a single iteration before running in a loop and wrapping the code in tryCatch I ran your "set-up" code (before the loop).? then extracted your code from the loop, set i <- 1, and then ran the code.? Here is what I got: ?> i <- 1 ?>???? y.val <- y[,i] ?>???? lin.reg <- lm(y.val~year, mydata) ?>???? seg.reg <- segmented.lm(lin.reg, seg.Z = ~ year, psi = NA, control = seg.control(stop.if.error = FALSE, n.boot = 0, it.max = 20)) Warning message: No breakpoint estimated ?>???? RSyear <- summary(seg.reg)$psi [1,2] ?>???? SlopeRegime1 <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[2,1] ?>???? SlopeDiff <- summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3,1] Error in summary(seg.reg)$coefficients[3, 1] : subscript out of bounds ?>???? new.regimeshift <- data.frame(RSyear=RSyear, SlopeRegime1=SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff=SlopeDiff) Error in data.frame(RSyear = RSyear, SlopeRegime1 = SlopeRegime1, SlopeDiff = SlopeDiff) : ?? object 'SlopeDiff' not found ?>???? rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] Error in rownames(new.regimeshift) <- colnames(y)[i] : ?? object 'new.regimeshift' not found ?>???? regimeshift <- rbind(regimeshift,new.regimeshift) Error in rbind(regimeshift, new.regimeshift) : ?? object 'new.regimeshift' not found ?>???? print(regimeshift) the immediate problems that show up are 1.? there is no variable psi the summary(seg.reg) object (RSyear is NULL). 2.? the coefficients[] matrix in the summary(seg.reg) object does not have 3 rows, so you get an error and SlopeDiff is not created. You need to correct these problems, and any others, so that your code runs correctly when there are no data problems.? Then you can worry about trapping errors in the case where there are data problems. Hope this is helpful, Dan -- Daniel Nordlund Port Townsend, WA? USA ? ?