This is the form that I ended using in the end. In addition to the average I also had values that needed to be totaled. One of the problems I ran into was if I didn't close the file before I started the new hash it wouldn't pick any values. I'm not sure if thats a to be expected part or inexperience. thanks all. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
open( FILE, "process.log") or die "Can't open average.txt : $!";

while (<FILE>) {
    next unless ( /(\w+)_mean_time:\s+([\d.]+)/ );

    $stats{$1}{count}++;
    $stats{$1}{sum} += $2;
}

printf( "%20s %5s %8s\n", "Name", "hours", "Average" );

for ( sort keys %stats ) {
    printf( "%19s: %5d %8.2f\n", $_, $stats{$_}{count},
             $stats{$_}{sum} / $stats{$_}{count} );


}
close(FILE);


open( FILE, "process.log") or die "Can't open average.txt : $!";
while (<FILE>) {
next unless ( /(\w+)_total_counts:\s+(\d+)/ );
    $counter{$1}{count}++;
    $counter{$1}{sum} += $2
}

printf( "%20s %5s %8s\n", "Name", "hours", "total" );
for ( sort keys %counter ) {
    printf( "%19s: %5d %8.2f\n", $_, $counter{$_}{count},
             $counter{$_}{sum} );
}
close(FILE);

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In reply to Re^4: seeking advise on average value problem by rangersfan
in thread seeking advise on average value problem by rangersfan

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