Hey thanks again that was what I ended up doing before I got a reply only problem is either I am displaying the data incorrectly on screen which is possible or all the values in the hass are the same. I only have 5 row cvs files that have 3 rows in common so the result is a 5 element hash problem is when I display the first value assigned in yhr ref'd array to a key it is always the same for every key which it definitely shouldn't be. what I am doing to display is a

foreach $hashkey (keys %hash){
   print "$hashkey has $hash{$hashkey}->[0] in first array element.\n"
+;
}
[download]

and what I get is the same result for every key so maybe I am doing that wrong. Anyways thanks for the help in advance.

Update: Ok the data looks like "lastname","firstname","date". What happens is that the %hash ends up having the keys tied to "lastname" so what is happening is when I print out the hash to the screen I get like
Smith has Johnson in first array element.
Johnson has Johnson in first array element.
Laskey has Johnson in first array element.
and so on.