However, using your way, I'm still trying to figure out how to make perl skip the first line in the data file since it contains the names of the variables... what do I need to change in the while loop? thanks!

One way is to put my $header = <$fh>; just before the while loop (replace $fh with whatever you've called your file handle). <$fh> in scalar context will read a single line from the file. You don't need to do anything with $header, I just find the code more readable if you label what you're doing.