The first of these works, but not the second. It would seem that the type cannot change along a >>= chain, but I may be missing something in the code. Is the second example illegal? If so, is there a different way to change a String to an Int along the >>= chain? Michael =========== import Data.Char {- transform :: IO () transform = putStrLn "What is your word?" >> getLine >>= \str -> return ('Q':str) >>= \str -> return ('Z':str) >>= \str -> putStrLn $ "Transformed word is " ++ show str -} transform :: IO () transform = putStrLn "What is your digit string?" >> getLine >>= \str -> return ('9':str) >>= \str -> return (read str :: Int) >>= \i -> putStrLn $ "The number is " ++ show i