file1:
COMPANY      ABCD 764200 E  2013,12,13   2013,12,19
COMPANY      BCDX 156167 L  2013,11,29   2013,12,03
COMPANY      BCYX 165230 L  2013,12,13   2013,12,19

file2:
COMPANY      ABCD 764200 E  2013,12,13   2013,12,19
COMPANY      BCDX 156167 L  2013,12,28   2013,12,31

file3:
COMPANY      ABCD 764200 E  2013,12,13   2013,12,17
COMPANY      BCDX 156167 L  2013,11,30   2013,12,03
COMPANY      BCYX 165230 L  2013,12,13   2013,12,17
COMPANY      BCYX 156095 L  2013,11,30   2013,12,08

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl
# 
use strict;
use warnings;
use Date::Calc qw( Delta_Days );

my @entries=();   ## hold my entries

open (my $file, '<', (@ARGV)) or die $!;
while (<$file>) {
    my @flds = split '\s+', $_;
    s/\s+$//;
    
    ## load my entries
    my $entry;
        
    	$entry->{COMPANY} =    $flds[0];
		$entry->{CAR_PART_1} = $flds[1];
		$entry->{CAR_PART_2} = $flds[2];
		$entry->{LE} =         $flds[3];
		$entry->{BEG_DATE} =   $flds[4];
		$entry->{END_DATE} =   $flds[5];

	##  Push $entry onto @entries
		push (@entries, $entry);
}        
close $file;
               
        foreach my $ent (sort @entries) {
		    my @ymd1 = split ',',$ent->{BEG_DATE};
            my @ymd2 = split ',',$ent->{END_DATE};
            my $diff = Delta_Days(@ymd1, @ymd2);
            if ($diff < 5) { next; }
            else {
                ## this is where I need logic for grabbing only the record with the most days
		    printf "$ent->{CAR_PART_1} $ent->{CAR_PART_2} $ent->{LE} $ent->{BEG_DATE} $ent->{END_DATE} $diff\n";   ## testing output
        }
}
exit;