Hello wrkrbeee,

program run, but is voluminous, duplicated entries, expanded the file size from about 3 MB to 26 MB

With the whole file slurped into $data in one go, the line:

print OUTPUT "$cik,$form_type,$report_date,$file_date,$name,$sic,$file
+size,$sb\n";
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runs once per file. With local $/; commented out, each file is read line-by-line, and the output code is called once for each line. No surprise, then, that the output file increases dramatically in size!

If you’re going to read each file line-by-line (as you should), you’re going to have to change the logic of the code accordingly. Exactly what the new logic should be depends on what the output file is supposed to look like. Note that, at present, each of the variables $cik, $form_type, etc., is initialised once per file, but if the file is read line-by-line, these variables are all reset (without being re-initialised) each time a line is read.

It will help a lot if you can provide a small amount of sample input, together with the corresponding output you wish to obtain.

Hope that helps,