--- DATA ----
NAME AGE
Sue  22
Sam  34
LUi  43

##</code><code>##

$|++;

use strict;
use Fcntl ':flock';

print "Enter new student's name: ";
chomp( my $student = <STDIN> );

print "Enter new student's number: ";
chomp( my $studentAge = <STDIN> );

open my $fh, '+<', 'students.dat' or die "open failed: $!";
flock $fh, LOCK_EX or die "flock failed: $!";

my $found = 0;
while (<$fh>) {
   $found = 1 if /^\Q$student\E$/i;
}

print $fh $student ,"\t" , $studentAge ,"\n" unless $found;

close $fh;