Les,
Good point! That was my next challange, I have not been able to call the results outside the udf! I think I just missed the endfunction in my cut and paste. The complete code is as follows (minus kixform)
Code:

$ListViewEx1.Items.Clear
$Populate = Readexcel('C:\Clients\Able\Price.xls')
;Excel file is a hundred or so rows of data 6 columns wide

            For $LColumn=0 to 6 
            $List = $ListViewEx1.items.add
		           	
                 For $Lcell=0 to ubound($a)
                 List.SubItems($Lcell).text = $b[$Lcolumn,$Lcell]
                 Next
            Next


$Form.Show
While $Form.Visible
  $=Execute($Form.DoEvents())
Loop
Exit 1

;*************************************

FUNCTION READEXCEL($cfilename) 
      DIM $Rc,$Column,$Cell,$oXL,$a[300],$b[6,300]
      ;$a=1,2,3,4,5,6,7;columns and order to be read 
      IF 0=EXIST($cfilename) ;insure the file exists 
            ?'Excel file not found' 
            SLEEP 4 
            RETURN ;leave 
      ENDIF 
      $oXL=Createobject('Excel.application') 
      ;Check to insure that Excel is available 
      IF 0<>@error ?@error ' Excel Application is not found'  
            SLEEP 4  
            RETURN  
      ENDIF 
      $Rc=$oXL.workbooks.open($cfilename) 
      
            For $Column=0 to 6            	
                 For $cell=0 to 300;ubound($a)
                 $b[$column,$cell]=$oXL.cells($column,$cell)
                 Next
            Next
            
$oXL.quit ;quit Excel 
$oXL=0 ;set the object to 0 

ENDFUNCTION


I have a little cleaning to do... I did not use $a at all and need to global dim the array. I have been trying to learn arrays from others code. Not understaing all of it this code is a bit of a mess!