@John General debugging methodology dictates that when your output does not match your expectation, you must never assume anything. Here you made the fatal mistake of assuming that: (1) files are stored as list objects, or (2) Python automatically converts file data to list objects, or (3) that python can read your mind, and knowing that you wanted a list, gave you a list. But in any of those cases, you would be wrong.
To discover the source of the problem, use Python's wonderful introspection capabilities. In this case, the built-in function named "type" is your friend. > apefile = open("apefile.txt") > apelist = apefile.read() print(type(apelist)) I would also make a slight quibble reguarding your choice of variable names. I would recommend "fileObj" and "fileData" respectively. Unless you are comparing the contents of two or more files (say: "apeData", "monkeyData" and "marmosetData") there is no need for the "ape" mnemonic. Use a generic name instead. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list