open IF, "$thefile" or die "Can't open $thefile: $!\n";
# note the 'or die'
my @lines = <IF>; #load file into array, line by line
close IF;
foreach (@lines) {
	my @array = split ";", $_, -1; # no upper limit on # of items
	# process @array
	foreach my $item (@array) {
		#process $item
	}
}