TomGeorge:
Hi
It sounds like the code was written for the 16x2 LCD display with the buttons arranged as a potential divider.Each button caused a different voltage output, which the analogRead would convert to a variable representing which button was pushed.
The circuit is like this.
If you want discrete buttons, you could wire a button to each of a digital input of your Arduino.Tom...
Oh ok thank you very much for this. I dont care about having the buttons each be on their own pin... so alternatively, could I just wire the buttons as shown in the diagram you provided? They all go to analog pin 0 but with different value resistors right? I will give it a try so if you dont have time to respond it is ok. And thank you very much for helping. Clearly I am new here and the other comments are just that which would normally cause someone to get discouraged and give up. God forbid it is a young child coming and asking for help. People like Johan_Ha will make them never return,. Thanks again.