Thank you. It looks much more than I expected. I need to get VS.NET on here then I can try it out.

Use padding to achieve what you want. Regards, Rohit Sinha Browsy Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. - Mother Teresa

You can get these estimates without modifying the source code of std::set. In order to count copying and compare operations, enrich the class you're using as element in the set like follows: class element_set { public: static unsigned no_of_copying_ops; static unsigned no_of_compare_ops; element_set(const element_set& x) { ++unsigned no_of_copying_ops; ... } bool operator<(const element_set& x)const { ++no_of_compare_ops; ... } ... }; unsigned element_set::no_of_copying_ops=0; unsigned element_set::no_of_compare_ops=0; Hope this helps, good luck. Joaquín M López Muñoz Telefónica, Investigación y Desarrollo