The following negation gives the error messages below (VS2005). Negation is OK if no action is given. Is there any way to enable an action on a negated character parser? +(~ch_p(L';')[push_back_a(variableName)]) error C2678: binary '~' : no operator found which takes a left-hand operand of type 'boost::spirit::action' (or there is no acceptable conversion) Lloyd Smith Senior Architect, Development CA, Inc. tel: +1 858 625-6869 tel: +1 858 538-1189 (home) mailto:lloyd.smith@ca.com mailto:lloyd.smith@ca.com