David Stockwell wrote: > I'm going to try using the range function. > > as in: > > ID_COL, ANIMAL_COL, HOUSING_COL = range(3) > > This appears to assign assign those vars as 'constants' with values of > 0,1,2 You should get an eye on http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/EnumerationProgramming It may give you some ideas... -- Yermat