Ok, this may look like a non-issue, but the conditional assignment also works with strings, like this: string PTtype = (PTtypecode=0) ? "SW" : "GG" The point is that the manual says: "The first field after string is the name under which the string should be saved, then comes an equals sign, then comes a specication of the string to be saved. This can be the keyword null, to produce an empty string, or may take any of the following forms:  a string literal (enclosed in double quotes); or  the name of an existing string variable; or  a function that returns a string (see below); or  any of the above followed by + and an integer oset." This sounds as if the above were not possible. -sven