function itemCount(stringVar,delimeter)
// this function returns the number of items in the string, as marked by the delimiter character
{
matches = 0;
stringVarLength = stringVar.length;
	for (var P = 1; P <= stringVarLength; P++)
	{
		charVal = stringVar.charAt(P);
		if (charVal == delimeter) { matches = matches + 1; }
	}
matches = matches + 1;
return (matches);
}