my $previous_time='';
while (1) {
  #get line of code $new_line
  #get line's date stamp $line_time

  if ($line_time ne $previous_time) {
    close(CURRENT_FILE) if ($previous_time); #could be left out since opening a new file closes the old
    open(CURRENT_FILE, ">>$DATA_DIRECTORY".$line_time.".ascii") or 
      die "$line_time.ascii could not be created\n";
    $previous_time= $line_time;
  }

  print CURRENT_FILE $new_line:
}