Think of it as If ElseIf statements with uniform indentation of the conditionals. Of course in this case it could be reduced to: If [failure condition 1] Then _ Throw New Exception("Condition 1 failed.") If [failure condition 2] Then _ Throw New Exception("Condition 2 failed.") 'etc... 'Success! But in defence of Select Case True, it used to be the easiest way to get short-circuiting in VB6. Could this code have been around long enough to have been converted? Regards, Mark Hurd, B.Sc.(Ma.) (Hons.)