Expect.pm passing $exp to subroutine ** line number correction

Hi,

thank you again list members for the quick response to my last question.

I am using the I am trying to figure out to pass my $exp to the
subroutine "grabConfig".  $exp is the variable of my expect object.
line 167 is "$patidx = $exp->expect($timeout, [$prompt]); "


here is the error message:

"                   Please Enter Selection: > Can't call method "expect"
on an undefined value at ./get.config.pl line 167."

here are snippets from my code:

---- snip ---

                     # send element number
                     while ($elementCount < $elementUpperLimit) {

                         $prompt = "$blah";
                         $exp->send("$elementCount");

                         &grabConfig;

                         $elementCount++;
                     }


sub grabConfig {
     $prompt = "^$user\@[a-z\.0-9\-]+>";

     $patidx = $exp->expect($timeout, [$prompt]);  <<<<<< line 169
     $read = $exp->before();

     #get hostname
     $read =~ /^@([^>]+)>\s/;
     $hostname = $1;
     $hostname = tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;
     $outputFilename = "$hostname.config.txt";

     #delete saved configuraiton file
     unlink ($outputFilename);

     # open new configuration file
     open (OUTPUT, ">$outputFilename");



---- snip ----