Just looking at the tutorials is unlikely to help. As I'm sure you're aware you need to work at things to learn. Start with learn perl in about 2 hours 30 minutes. Look at the tutorials section of this site. http://learn.perl.org also has references to look at. With regards the task at hand, write down a list of steps your program should take. Address these one at a time. Brake large problems down into a collection of smaller problems. If you get stuck with something specific please post a question (see How do I post a question effectively?). We can explain things to you, but we can understand them for you.