I'll chime in here really quick, but I'm sure others will have more to say
You probably want to validate the data before passing it on to the private method. If you look at some of your instructor solutions, you'll see how they've validated early on, well before any other methods are called.
So, if you validate on the outside, you won't have to on the inside (at least in this case)
Also... you'll probably have to have more than 1 method of your own
Good luck to you!
[ August 24, 2004: Message edited by: dav mccartney ]