http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=188157


in reply to Is this a correct way of obtaining input from a file?

I would replace your first snippet with
my @fields; while (<DATAFILE>) { chomp; push @fields, $_; }
This will give you an array with the correct values. If you want to assign it to a variable, then do:
my ($TRACK, $pager, $service) = @fields;
I haven't tested this, but it should be ok!