diff --git a/src/fileio.c b/src/fileio.c
index 96e5cd3..32cfdb2 100644
--- a/src/fileio.c
+++ b/src/fileio.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 
-#define MAX_ASM_LINE_LENGTH 100
+#define MAX_ASM_LINE_LENGTH 30
 
 int isValidFileFormat(char filename[], char expectedExtension[]){
     int *pointLoc = strrchr(filename, '.');
@@ -34,23 +34,47 @@ int writeBinaryFile(word instrs[], char outputFile[]){
     return(0);
 }
 
-int readAssemblyFile(char inputFile[]) {
+char **readAssemblyFile(char inputFile[]) {
     if (!isValidFileFormat(filename, "s")){
-        return(1);
+        return(NULL);
     }
 
-    FILE *fp;
-    char savedLine[MAX_ASM_LINE_LENGTH];
+    FILE *fp = fopen(inputFile, "r");
 
-    fp = fopen(inputFile, "r");
+    if (fp == NULL){
+        return(NULL);
+    }
 
-    if(fp == NULL){
-        return(-1);
+    int lineCount = 0;
+    char ch;
+    while ((ch = fgetc(fp)) != EOF)
+    {
+        if (ch == '\n' || ch == '\0')
+        {
+            count++;
+        }
     }
     
-    while (fgets(savedLine, MAX_ASM_LINE_LENGTH-1, fp) != NULL) {
-        //pass line to parser
+    char **heap = malloc(sizeof(char *) * count);
+
+    rewind(fp);
+
+    for( int i=0; i<count; i++) {
+
+        char tmp[512];
+
+        // read line into tmp
+        fgets(tmp, MAX_ASM_LINE_LENGTH-1, fp);
+
+        size = strlen(tmp) 
+
+        char *line = malloc(size+1)  // allocate mem for text line
+
+        strcpy(line, tmp);
+
+        heap[i] = line;  // store line pointer
+
     }
 
-    return(0);
+    return(heap);
 }