and what about this?? Herbert
string const convertTo7chars(string const & input) { string::size_type size = input.size(); if (size != 13 && size != 10 && size != 4) // Can't deal with it. return input; if (input[0] != '#') // Can't deal with it. return input; ostringstream oss; oss << '#'; switch (size) { case 13: // #rrrrggggbbbb oss << input.substr(3,2) << input.substr(7,2) << input.substr(11); break; case 10: // #rrrgggbbb oss << input.substr(2,2) << input.substr(5,2) << input.substr(8); break; case 4: // #rgb for (int i=0 ; i<3; i++) oss << input[i] << '0'; break; } return oss.str().c_str(); } -- http://www.lyx.org/help/