Taking the parts of your guidance request in reverse order:

"to get the desired output I am looking for"

Is printing a simple "E" or "L" your "desired output?" If so, do you nonetheless think the second snippet is somehow deficient? If so, how?

"I just need to be guided on to where to put the code.... "

Probably it would be best to put the second snippet into the first, after the input from <STDIN> for $cmmdty has run its course.

But what's the point of the second input routine? What is expected when asking user to enter a $lore? Does a $lore have to do with your question?

And at least as much to the point, how much thought did you put into solving your (trivial) question before posting? Why did you bother posting instead of trying your possibilities... or reading the applicable tuts?

Paraphrasing numerous suggestions found in the FAQs and elsewhere here in the Monastery, we really do like to see some genuine effort. That fact that you posted some code hardly obscures the fact that there's very little sign you made any serious effort to answer your actual question.

The code provided is what is currently being used...manually entering in if the truck is loaded or empty...for example: a screen pops up asking what the commodity is say Scrap: then the next screen would automatically be filled with L for being loaded. If the Commodity screen pops up and NONE: is typed then the next screen would automatically show E for being empty.

Also - in your code, you may want to change "elsif" to plain "else".

Pre-populate based on input: if input is the word NONE then the prepopulated output for the next screen would be E and if any other input the prepopulated output would be L

Did you notice that my previous post had a Link to information on how to implement this "pre-population", along with a discussion on why it was not a good idea ?

        "You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."         - Robin Williams

print "==============\n\n";
print "| COMMODITY: |\n\n";
print "==============\n\n";

my $cmmdty = <STDIN>;
$cmmdty = <STDIN> until defined $cmmdty;
chomp $cmmdty;
cls();

print "====================\n\n";
print "| LOADED OR EMPTY: |\n\n";
print "====================\n\n";

my $lore = <STDIN>;
$lore = <STDIN> until defined $lore;
chomp $lore;
cls();
[download]

Here's one way you could rewrite it:

sub prompt_for_value {
    my ($label) = @_;

    my $len  = length($label);
    my $line = "=" x ($len + 5);

    # Display the prompt, eg.
    #
    #     print "==============\n\n";
    #     print "| COMMODITY: |\n\n";
    #     print "==============\n\n";
    print "$line\n\n";
    print "| $label: |\n\n";
    print "$line\n\n";

    my $value = "";
    while (1) {
        chomp(my $value = <STDIN>);
        if ($value) {
            cls();      # Is this subroutine defined?
            return $value;
        }
    }
}


my $cmmdty = prompt_for_value("COMMODITY");
my $lore   = prompt_for_value("LOADED OR EMPTY");
[download]

Note that the prompt takes the length of the label into account, so the containing box is the right size.

This kind of code reuse will really help your programming skills.

Hello Monks,
After stepping back from the script I finally figured it out on my own...sometimes you just have to step back and re think what it is you are doing...fixed code below:

print "==============\n\n";
print "| COMMODITY: |\n\n";
print "==============\n\n";

my $cmmdty = <STDIN>;
$cmmdty = <STDIN> until defined $cmmdty;
chomp $cmmdty;

if ($cmmdty) {
if ($cmmdty eq "NONE") {
chomp(my $lore = "E");
} else {
chomp(my $lore = "L");
cls();
[download]

It does exactly as I expect it to do.

"It does exactly as I expect it to do."

What did you expect this code to do?

if ($cmmdty eq "NONE") {
chomp(my $lore = "E");
} ...
[download]

Here's what it does:

• creates a new lexical variable called $lore
• assigns the string 'E' to $lore
• calls chomp which does absolutely nothing
• allows $lore to go out of scope so that it cannot be accessed by any other part of your code

In short, create a variable, assign a value, perform a pointless operation and then throw it all away.

You possibly have the same problem with 'chomp(my $lore = "L");' but that part of the code is incomplete so I can't tell.

-- Ken

It does exactly as I expect it to do.

Are you sure ?

How will you access the value of $lore , after this part of your script completes ?

And, you are missing a closing brace.

        "You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."         - Robin Williams

The closing brackets (2) have been added and the value of $lore gets printed to a flatfile database for later retrieval.