Hi! Richard,

In a message to All you wrote:

 RW> But, Timo's function evaluator was giving me weird numbers,
 RW> almost like it couldn't add or subtract anymore.

 RW> So, we played with it in test mode for awhile, then discovered that 
 RW> if we express the equation fully algebraic as in

 RW> fn /b %COUNTER%+-%ID% >> checknum.txt

 RW> we suddenly get the right answer.

I had nearly the same problem about two years ago, when I was doing some
simple text file manipulation with newsgroup posts (really, really simple
stuff BTW).  You may recall that I like to use Greg Miskelly's PSIS.COM in a
lot of my batches for simple maths functions(?).  Well, back then I found it
was either not working at all or was giving strange results (can't recall).  I
ended up having to resort to using Horst's COUNT.COM instead.  Not that I mind
doing that, of course.  In fact, the only external utils I used in the batch
besides FIND were all Horst's: COUNT, LMOD & NSET.  [big grin]

 RW> 

Yep, and much teeth grinding, nail biting & hair pulling no doubt.  Been
there; done that.

 RW> Fun with my morning coffee.

Thank you.  I was just enjoying mine too.

Cheers,
Paul.

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