This looks like a job for list comprehensions: >>> returned_lines= ['Name: John, Value: 12','We don't want this one.','Name: >>> Eric, Value: 24'] >>> [x for x in returned_lines if ('Name' in x and 'Value' in x)] ['Name: John, Value: 12', 'Name: Eric, Value: 24']
List comprehensions are great. If you are not familiar with them, check out the Python documentation. Once you get started with them, you won't look back. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list