It's one of the first things I always do (breakpoints = print statements). I believe I see where the problem lies. There's a section whereby a scalar is set to $hash{$variableIn}{"NoUsers"} and then that scalar is used in a comparison statement (i.e. =~ /^(
)$/). It may be that there is no entry for variable at a certain time in the loop. I'll try a defined if and see if that fixes it before posting back. Thanks again.