Well, unless you're sure that $TheRec is left empty, in which case we should start there, I'd look at your other while() loops. For example, the next one: while ($NewItem[$z]) { ... } will fail similarly to your old while (<IN>) loop. To rectify this one, for instance, you might need to switch to something more like while(defined($NewItem[$z])) or somesuch.

Although there's nothing really wrong with the way you expressed this, by the way, it is more idiomatic to write the loop like this:

  # Itterate over the contents of the @NewItem list
  # For each item in the list, set $item to the value
  # (equivalent to $NewItem[$z] in your code)
  foreach my $item (@NewItem) {
    # And add this value in like you did before.
    $SQLString = $SQLString . $item . "\',\'";
  }
[download]

And even that's a little more loose that it could be.

At any rate, go back and refactor your code, looking for more places to stick watch for the defined-but-false condition. And be sure that $TheRec is actually coming back blank.

Hope this helps!
--jwest

-><- -><- -><- -><- -><-
All things are Perfect
    To every last Flaw
    And bound in accord
         With Eris's Law
 - HBT; The Book of Advice, 1:7