# ex. one database file - 
if (-e $database) {
  open(DB, $database) or die "Error opening file: $!\n";
  while(<DB>){
    push @results, $_;
  }
  close (DB);
  foreach $entry (@results){

    # at this pt. $p_data[3] may look like " 7"
    my ($key, @p_data) = split(/\|/,$entry);

    # $p_data[3] sometimes added to $total w/ numerical value of 0
    $total += $p_data[3];
  }
  # do some other stuff with $total... blah, blah, blah
}