I don''t know about determining the size, there''s probably a function for that, but as far as the first character... I think that if you use the fopen family of functions, the call is fgetc(), I THINK. If you use the fstream functions, then it should be very similar to cout and cin instructions. Just check up on whatever family of functions you are using. (Look up the name of the open or close function, and see what other functions it lists, or look for a list of the functions in the header file you are using).

Good luck!

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Jonathan Little
invader@hushmail.com
http://www.crosswinds.net/~uselessknowledge