if you mean 'lookup '3' and get code '1111001' then i'm good with that but i do'nt get how that helps writing to the specific lcddata registers and the individual bits as above.

Picbasic manual suggests that QUOTE - "All of the PICmicro registers, including the ports, can be accessed just like any other byte-sized variable in PICBASIC PRO™. " but can variables be defined in an array, table etc

It's the code ( in this case displaying '0' ) that i'm trying to change:-

LCDDATA2.6 = 1
LCDDATA2.7 = 1
LCDDATA8.7 = 1
LCDDATA11.6 = 1
LCDDATA8.6 = 1
LCDDATA5.6 = 1
LCDDATA5.7 = 0

'cos to display 10 numbers (0-9) as above requires 10 repeats of the above code, and of course the other two 7-seg display requires a further 20 code blocks of the above.

Any suggestions for cutting all of that down would be appreciated

alastair