Thank you all very much! There were some really great approaches to this problem that you all mentioned, and I took a good look at all of them. I've been programming for a while now, but fairly simple stuff, and whenever I'd pick up a book or read a manual, I'd skip certain sections, including that on the bitwise operators and what they were good for...
After trying a few solutions out, I've opted for David Bernard's suggestion. It forced me to learn a few things I should have really picked up earlier, and it seems quite elegant (although some of the other suggestions were as well). I'm used to system administration with linux, and I'm noticing the technique used in many areas (most notably permissions). Rick's suggestion, the modification of the database, was my second choice. It seems like it would probably be the best idea, but it makes the database design (something I'm obviously not that familiar with), a little too complicated, and I'd hate to mess things up in a site update. Ksenia, you're solution was very simple. And although I'm a big advocate of the "keep it simple, stupid" lifestyle, my code already looks a bit too scrambled to add something so pretty to it ;) You've all been a great help, and I really appreciate the input. Thank you very much! _________________________ http://kassemi.blogspot.com
