sub get_items {
  my $category = shift;
  open(DATAFILE,"$catagory.dat") or return undef;

  my @fields = qw/time name email phone subject data passwd picture priceline/;
  my @items = ();

  while (<DATAFILEIN>) {
    chomp;
    my %hash = ();
    @hash{@fields} = split /=/, $_;
    push @items, \%hash;
  }

  return @items;
}

##</code><code>##

print $items[$i]{time};
print "There are " . scalar(@items) . " items\n";
# etc..