I've had success as follows:

sub extractData
{
    my @projects;

    push @projects, [ readOnly( "$proj Data.txt" ), "A" ];

    unless( $pointerProj eq "NONE" )
    {
        push @projects, [ readOnly( "$pointerProj Data.txt" ), "B" ];
    }

    for( @projects )
    {
        my @data = @{ $_->[0] };
        my $key = $_->[1];
        ...
    }
}
[download]

Where readOnly() returns \@contents

Thanks again for the help frozenwithjoy, 2teez