> What's the simplest way to increment the number 0000 up by one until some other 4 digit number while > preserving leading zero's until the 1000's has a digit other than 0? Lots of answers, depending on the shell. I like this version for ksh: typeset -Z4 a=-1 while (( a++ < 1000 )) do print $a done Not enough use is made of typeset :-) -- rgds Stephen