module Main where main = do content <- getContents let starstat = oneline content alphabet = ['a'..'z'] count ch = length . filter (==ch) oneline str ch = [ch] ++ " " ++ stars (count ch str) stars x = take x ['*','*'..] sequence $ map (putStrLn . starstat) alphabet Just another example ... I thought you might like an example close to your original code _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.