Kent, Running
path = "d:/emacs files/emacsinit.txt" lines = open(path).readlines() # my defun lines are lowercase, # next two lines are all on one starts = [i for i, line in enumerate(lines) if line.startswith('(defun')] for i, start in starts: while start > 0 and lines[start-1].startswith(';'): starts[i] = start = start-1 print starts I get File "D:\Python\findlines.py", line 7, in __main__ for i, start in starts: TypeError: unpack non-sequence Also, I don't understand the "i for i", but I don't understand a lot of things yet :) thanks, rick -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list