aha mabey i should have made it more clear as I allso shortened the config file in the second example to only contain one entry. ;;HPLCColumn;;18;
1. im' using  use strict and i thought the -w tag in  #!c:\perl\bin\ -w was the same as  use warnings
2.the whole reason for which number is in the first example is so that i make shure that the config file is read in order
3. the same thing's regardless what example i use 1, or 2, you can output the value caught in the regex directly above where it is is to be called by  $Sheet->Cells(6,$HPLC_Collum)->{'Value'} and it still result's in an error
Thanks
BlueInk