Hello guys, thanks so much for sticking with me on this, OK, i have read a few pages in the Beginning Perl chap6 on file handlers, still a little fuzzy to me but i am trying.

heres the code as i have it: (also the errors im getting below that)

use warnings;
 use strict;
 
 open my $fh, '+>', 'output.txt'
   or die("Can't open the damn file!: $!");
 open FILE, 'c:/aperlphone/myphonelist.txt' or die $!;   
  
while(my $line == 'FILE')     # semi-colon removed(run1) & (run2)equit
+y test to '=='
     {                              # extra empty line removed: HazNav
+ (not an error)
     chomp $line;
     my ($name, $num) = split(/\s+(?=\d)/, $line);  # missing semi-col
+on inserted (run 1)
 
     # some lines have whitespace after the num
 
     $num =~ s/\s+//g;
 
     if ($num =~ /^\d{4}$/){
         $num = "(333)-447-$num";
     }
     elsif ($num =~ /^\d{3}-\d{4}$/){
         $num = "(333)-$num";
     }
 
     print $fh "$name $num\n";
 }
[download]

Use of uninitialized value $line in numeric eq (==) at C:\aperlphone\P
+honeListFinalX.pl line 9.
Use of uninitialized value $line in scalar chomp at C:\aperlphone\Phon
+eListFinalX.pl line 11.
Use of uninitialized value $line in split at C:\aperlphone\PhoneListFi
+nalX.pl line 12.
Use of uninitialized value $num in substitution (s///) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 16.
Use of uninitialized value $num in pattern match (m//) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 18.
Use of uninitialized value $num in pattern match (m//) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 21.
Use of uninitialized value $name in concatenation (.) or string at C:\
+aperlphone\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 25.
Use of uninitialized value $num in concatenation (.) or string at C:\a
+perlphone\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 25.
Use of uninitialized value $line in numeric eq (==) at C:\aperlphone\P
+honeListFinalX.pl line 9.
Use of uninitialized value $line in scalar chomp at C:\aperlphone\Phon
+eListFinalX.pl line 11.
Use of uninitialized value $line in split at C:\aperlphone\PhoneListFi
+nalX.pl line 12.
Use of uninitialized value $num in substitution (s///) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 16.
Use of uninitialized value $num in pattern match (m//) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 18.
Use of uninitialized value $num in pattern match (m//) at C:\aperlphon
+e\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 21.
Use of uninitialized value $name in concatenation (.) or string at C:\
+aperlphone\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 25.
Use of uninitialized value $num in concatenation (.) or string at C:\a
+perlphone\PhoneListFinalX.pl line 25.
Use of uninitialized value $line in numeric eq (==) at C:\aperlphone\P
+honeListFinalX.pl line 9.
Use of uninitialized value $line in scalar chomp at C:\aperlphone\Phon
+eListFinalX.pl line 11.
Use of uninitialized value $line in split at C:\aperlphone\PhoneListFi
+nalX.pl line 12.
Use of uninitialized value $line in split at C:\aperlphone\PhoneListFi
+nalX.pl line 12.
Terminating on signal SIGINT(2)
[download]

At no point in your code do you assign any value to $line so it is no great surprise that you see all those warnings to say that $line and the other variables which are extracted from it are uninitialized.

This line is likely to be the cause of (some of) your troubles:

while(my $line == 'FILE')

Here you are numerically comparing a variable with no value ($line) with a string ('FILE'). There is every chance that what you would actually want to do here is assign a value to $line on the basis of a line read from your input file handle. eg:

while (my $line = <FILE>)

Note the difference between the numeric comparison operator == and the assignment operator =. See perlop for the details. HTH.