open my $filehandle, ...

while (my $record = <$filehandle>) {
    chomp $record;  # Remove the newline
    # Do stuff with the record text, e.g.
    my @fields = split /$field_separator/ => $record;
    ...
}

##</code><code>##

open my $filehandle, ...

while (<$filehandle>) {
    chomp;  # Remove the newline
    # Do stuff with the record text, e.g.
    my @fields = split /$field_separator/;
    ...
}