From: Paul Joyce Date: 2011-04-01T19:21:40+09:00 Subject: Re: SImple question about file io Hi Haruka Thank you for you help. I guess its a good idea to initialise vars. Adding opf = nil solves the problem, though I must confess to not being entirely sure why, since the initialisation should create it, and as far as I can tell it exists for the rest of the runtime, just closes and re-opens pointing to a different file. I mean the problem arises in the line following the File.new statement that defines opf ??? Anyway - it now works - thats the main thing! thanks again much appreciated Paul -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.