in reply to Script doesn't enter while loop.

        while (<FILE>) {
        $file_data=<FILE>;
        }

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The <> operator reads a line from a file regardless if you set it to anything, so this script will try to read in two lines every time it iterates through the loop. Since you only have a single line, you're going to run into problems here. A better way to code this is : 
while( $file_data = <FILE> ) { }

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or 
my ( $file_data ) = <FILE>;

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-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
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Re: Re: Script doesn't enter while loop.
by ChemBoy (Priest) on Aug 23, 2001 at 21:28 UTC

    Or even 

    my $file_data = <FILE>;

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    if you don't like useless parentheses. :-) (Note that those parentheses are far from useless under other circumstances-- you just don't need them here).

    For the problem of "not entering the while loop", note that the debugger does some strange and curious things around loops sometimes. I tested your code with the following two-line input: 

    foo,bar
fooey

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    and got the following sequence in the debugger (note that the empty command statements are all interpreted as "n"):
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