I am trying to take some data in file that looks like this command colnum_1 columnum_2
and look for the command and then cange the value in the collum(word) number indicated. I am under the impression I need enumerate but I am not sure what to do with it any help would be nice. import sys parse1filerows = [] csoundrows = [] filename = sys.argv[0] number = sys.argv[1] outfile = open('test.sco','w') infile = open(filename, 'r') for line in infile: csoundrows.append(line.split()) parsefile = open('parsefile1.txt', 'r') for line in parsefile: parsefile1rows.append(line.split()) for row in csoundrows: for prow in parsefile1rows: test = 0 if parsefile1[prow][0] in csoundrow[row]: for pcol in parsefile1[prow]: if test == 1: csoundrows[row][int(pcol)] = str(int(csoundrows[row] [int(pcol)] + number) for row in csoundrows: for word in rows: outfile.write(row) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list