i'll have to start fresh tomorrow i think. the way i'm doin it seems ok, but maybe there's a better way. i'll look at them all again. right now i'm stuck because i need to print a file that is named with ref->{'prodtext'}, and i can't seem to open the file within the current block (because it only hits the first instant and stops) and i can't make it work in a sub routine because i'm using a hash and not an array and i don't know if there's a way to pass ref->{'prodtext'} to the subroutine.

<code> foreach my $ref (@products) { if ($ref->{prodname} =~ ($value)){ print $ref->{prodcode}; print "
"; print $ref->{prodname}; print "
"; print $ref->{prodprice}; print "
"; print $ref->{prodtext}; print "
"; print "

---

"; #here is where i need to open the file named in $ref->{prodtext}, and just print out the contents. i tried to put it in a subroutine, but don't know how to pass the hash element to it. </code.