Instead of putting the conditional inside the div(...) call, put it immediately afterwards (and start a separate print for the final $cgi->end_html()):

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use CGI;
use CGI ":standard";
use CGI::Carp qw{ fatalsToBrowser };

$index = 0;
$cgi = new CGI;
print $cgi->header(),
    $cgi->start_html(),
    $cgi->div({-id=>pagewrap});

 if($index==0) {
     print $cgi->p("Hello"),
 }

print $cgi->end_html();
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Notice that the code above has the very useful:

use CGI::Carp qw{ fatalsToBrowser };
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syntax error at /var/www/html/index.cgi line 10, near "if"
Execution of /var/www/html/index.cgi aborted due to compilation errors
+.
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Thanks for the quick reply and the Carp statement, but if I do it the way you have done then $cgi->p("Hello") doesn't inherit the pagewrap div from the css as it's closing too early.

Shouldn't you stop using CGI anyway? If you use something with MVC as CGI::Application or Catalyst you wouldn't have to bother with those details.

Alceu Rodrigues de Freitas Junior
---------------------------------
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." - Sir Winston Churchill

use CGI qw/:standard *div/;
my $cgi = new CGI;
print $cgi->header(),
      $cgi->start_html(),
      $cgi->start_div({-id=>pagewrap}); # NOTICE ** START_DIV
if($index==0) { 
       print $cgi->p("Hello");
}

print $cgi->end_div(),
      $cgi->end_html();
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use CGI ":standard";

my $cgi = new CGI;
print $cgi->header(),
  $cgi->start_html(),
  $cgi->div({-id=>pagewrap},
            $index==0 ?   $cgi->p("Hello") : ""
            ),
  $cgi->end_html();
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#!/usr/bin/perl -l

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI qw/:standard/;

my $index = 0;
if($index == 0) {
    my $cgi = new CGI;
    print $cgi->header(),
    $cgi->start_html(),
    $cgi->div({-id => 'pagewrap'}, "Hello"),
    $cgi->end_html();
}
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#!/usr/bin/perl -l

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI qw/:standard/;

my $index = 0;
if($index == 0) {
  my $cgi = CGI->new;
  print header, start_html, div({-id=>'pagewrap'}, "Hello"), end_html;
}
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Here's what you need:

$cgi->div({-id=>pagewrap},
   ($index==0 ? $cgi->p("Hello") : $cgi->p() )
   }
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Thanks everyone for your input but the only way I could solve it was instead of using the DIV statement with brackets was to use the alternative.

print $cgi->start_div({-id=>pagewrap});
   if($index==0) {print "Hello";}
print $cgi->end_div();
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Your style is all over the place and to do in such a sort space is something of an achievement. :P Please use strict and pick a CGI style. You are importing a ton of functions (":standard") but using it object oriented. There is almost never a reason to use it OOP in a standalone script; only if you need to pass it around libraries or harnesses.

You can't just drop a post-fix conditional into a print list. You can use the Enterprise operator (see Secret Perl Operators: the boolean list squash operator, x!!), among a couple other tricks though–

use strict;
use CGI ":standard";

my $index = param("index") || 0;

print header(),
    start_html(),
    div({ -id => "pagewrap" },
        ( p("Hello") ) x ! $index,
       ),
    end_html();
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