Brett, Hard to tell exactly what you're trying to do here, but it looks like you'd be better served using one of the built in python data structures.
For example: If you're trying to compare some elements of these textfiles that are broken into titles, and contents for each file, try something like: myfiles = [ 'test.txt', 'test1.txt', 'test2.txt', 'test3.txt', 'test4.txt' ] myfiledict = {} for filename in myfiles: openfile = file(filename) myfiledict[filename] = [ line.strip() for line in openfile.readlines()] openfile.close() # easier to read this way # self.content = [] # for line in f.readlines(): # self.content.append(line.strip()) # then the contents of the file "test.txt" are accessable with the expression: # myfiledict['test.txt'] # if you make a few lists of files, then you can compare them like this for k1, k2 in myfiledict, cmpfiledict: # if list == titlelist2[y][1]: From your code. The line below is what # I think you want. if k1 == k2: # Whatever happens in your code that you've clipped. If you post the rest of your code, or email me, then I'll be happy to answer your question. -S -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list