Can anyone suggest why is might be going wrong.

if (($box !~ /\w+/) && ($value !~ /\w+/))   {
 print "You haven't entered anything on the form";
 print STDOUT  $cgi->end_html;
 exit (0);
}
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Some things are seem strange to me:

• Your code will complain when someone doesn't enter a 'word' character (that is, [a-zA-Z0-9_] or something similar, depending on locale).

  For instance, when someone enters a "#" character, your code will complain.

  Probably you'll want to change either the message, or the regex, depending on what kind of values are allowed.

• Your regex will give undefined values warnings when there is no data submitted to the form.

• print STDOUT $something is equivalent to print $something here.

• You do not print a HTTP-header, or start the HTML document in the error message: use print $cgi->header, $cgi->start_html("CGI Error"); or something similar.

• I would put the use CGI::Carp line to the top of the script, so the error handler would be installed ASAP.

-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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