pm me tmrw, i'll work on it then (going to bed now)

No worries, will do

I now have a similar need but maybe easier to accomplish. I'm creating a new site and would like to pre-populate the userbase with the 300 users from another site. The new site is fresh and will have a similar design except for using the new Forum and a much different group structure (groups by regions).

The basic users may be easy enough but setting up the groups could be a nightmare. As mentioned by Brash, the group handling after a certain number of users is more than painful. Maybe starting with the same groups if I can have that populated during the merge and then renaming and adjusting afterward?

great thread! worked & saved me sooo much time thx!

how/what would be used to only merge 2 of my users into 1?
the only problem i have run into from merging db users, is that 1 of my users [an admin] had a different user name in 1 db & now has 2 accounts which both have forum posts & pics [myalbulm] posted...i merged forums & pics as well from the old site db