Thanks everyone for the adjustments, also thanks for explaining the /S, however $regsubex($1-,/\D+/g,) is what i require for my need, the data im parsing isnt irc messages, so i doubt there would be control codes there anyway, but just as i think i said, any non numerics need dumping. (I should have thought to include a ctrl-k12,3 with output retaining 123 in it but i didnt really think about it)