Well shoot, that bug is over a year old, guess I'll just get rid of the monitor and use mouse clicks on the terminal.

I've discovered something weird going on with this.... the monitor is letting me touch the screen outside of the screen. Idk if I can explain this.... the keypad is printed on the monitor at coordinates 1,1 which is good. however i can touch coordinates 0,0(top left corner of the border around the screen) which isn't even on the screen and it thinks that i hit the 1 button. in fact the whole thing is stretched up one and left one. visually its in the right place, but by touch it's messed up.. all coordinates from 0,0 - 0,9 and 0,0 - 9,0 register a touch. http://pastebin.com/BuvQtjkT

Ahhh, yes, thank you Bomb bloke, that helped. And you're right, there are definitely other problems.

Alright, told ya I'd be back... Thanks Lyqyd and Lignum, that was exactly what I needed. Now I'm stuck again, I'm not sure I'm using functions properly, also no matter which button I hit it only prints '1' and lets me keep pressing buttons after the first four. I'm not sure where I messed up... So here is what i have so far... http://pastebin.com/mKYJST0J

function check()
  entry = tonumber(codeTbl[1]..codeTbl[2]..codeTbl[3]..codeTbl[4])
  if entry == code then mon.setCursorPos(1,10) print("ACCESS GRANTED")  --do something here with redstone
    else mon.setCursorPos(1,10) print("ACCESS DENIED")
  end
_1st = false
_2nd = false
_3rd = false
_4th = false
codeTbl = {}
end
function _123or4() --is it the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th number you pressed
  if _1st == false then mon.setCursorPos(11,2) _1st = true
    elseif _2nd == false then mon.setCursorPos(12,2) _2nd = true
    elseif _3rd == false then mon.setCursorPos(13,2) _3rd = true
    elseif _4th == false then mon.setCursorPos(14,2) _4th = true
  end
end
mon = peripheral.wrap("left")
term.redirect(peripheral.wrap("left"))
mon.setTextScale(.5)
mon.setBackgroundColor(colors.black)
mon.clear()
codeTbl = {}  --table the code is hopefully being stored within
_1st = false
_2nd = false
_3rd = false
_4th = false
code = 1234
--read txt file and print it to monitor
hFile = fs.open("keypad.txt", "r")
for i = 1, 9 do
  print(hFile.readLine())
end
hFile.close()
--it looks like this
--/-\/-\/-\
--|1||2||3|
--\-/\-/\-/ ^^^^
--/-\/-\/-\
--|4||5||6|
--\-/\-/\-/
--/-\/-\/-\
--|7||8||9|
--\-/\-/\-/
w,h = mon.getSize()
repeat
  event,side,w,h = os.pullEvent("monitor_touch")
  if w == 1 or 2 or 3 and h == 1 or 2 or 3 then _123or4()
    print("1")
    elseif w == 4 or 5 or 6 and h == 1 or 2 or 3 then _123or4()
    print("2")
    elseif w == 7 or 8 or 9 and h == 1 or 2 or 3 then _123or4()
    print("3")
    elseif w == 1 or 2 or 3 and h == 4 or 5 or 6 then _123or4()
    print("4")
    elseif w == 4 or 5 or 6 and h == 4 or 5 or 6 then _123or4()
    print("5")
    elseif w == 7 or 8 or 9 and h == 4 or 5 or 6 then _123or4()
    print("6")
    elseif w == 1 or 2 or 3 and h == 7 or 8 or 9 then _123or4()
    print("7")
    elseif w == 4 or 5 or 6 and h == 7 or 8 or 9 then _123or4()
    print("8")
    elseif w == 7 or 8 or 9 and h == 7 or 8 or 9 then _123or4()
    print("9")
  end
i = #codeTbl
until i == 4
  if #codeTbl == 4 then check()
  end

I hope I don't have any typos, I transcribed that from minecraft

Wow, you answered quickly, I wasn't expecting that Cool, I didn't know that tonumber() was a thing. I'll give that a try. As for what this does, most of this code was me testing.... I'm trying to make a touchscreen keypad lock, without looking at anyone else's code(for my own sense of accomplishment), that requires the user to enter 4 numbers to unlock a door. I was having trouble figuring out how to compare the user's entries to the correct unlock code. Thank you very much, I'm sure I'll be back, I've got a few more things I'm having trouble with.

i have a table with 4 one digit numbers in it and i want to smush those 4 numbers into 1 four digit number. i don't know where to go from here.

tbl = {}

print("enter first number:") entry1 = read()
print("enter second number:") entry2 = read()
print("enter third number:") entry3 = read()
print("enter fourth number:") entry4 = read()

entry = entry1..entry2..entry3..entry4
print("this is: 'entry1..entry2..entry3..entry4'")
print(entry)

tbl[1] = entry1
tbl[2] = entry2
tbl[3] = entry3
tbl[4] = entry4

entryt = tbl[1]..tbl[2]..tbl[3]..tbl[4]
print("this is: 'tbl[1]..tbl[2]..tbl[3]..tbl[4]'")
print(entryt)

print("tostring with key and value")
for k, v in pairs(tbl) do
  print("key is:"..tostring(k).." value is:"..tostring(v))
end

a = entry
b = entryt
code = 1234
print("entry = "..entry)
print("entryt = "..entryt)
print("code = "..code)
if a == entry then print("a = entry")
  else print("a ~= entry")
end
if b == entryt then print("b = entryt")
  else print("b ~= entryt")
end
if a == b then print("a = b")
  else print("a ~= b")
end
if a == code then print("entry = code")
  else print("entry ~= code")
end
if b == code then print("entryt = code")
  else print("entryt ~= code")
end

i apologize for what i'm sure is just a mess, but i'm just learning..... anyway when i run this and enter the numbers 1,2,3,and 4 into the table and try to concatenate them into one number, they don't equal the code variable, which is 1234.... can someone help me do this please? thanks for listening