> > what's the best way to read a flat file like this line by line and split > each line to three variables? > > 1:menuname:url > 1.1:submenuname:url > 1.2:submenuname:url > 2:nenuname:url > 2.1:sub > ... > You might also want to look at the TinyTablePlus product, http://www.zope.org/Members/hathawsh/TinyTablePlus for storing simple tabular information like this. Ivan