babysFirstPerl:

Since your file is small, you might just want to read the file into memory, chop off the header and footer using a hash slice, and then process the rest:

$numHeaders= $ARGV[0];
$numFooters= $ARGV[1];

# Read the file into memory
open (INPUT, $l_infile);
my @file = <INPUT>;
close INPUT;

# Treating the array as a scalar value gives you the number of lines
# (not that you really need to worry about this right now)
my $numLines = @file;

# Split the headers and footers into their own arrays
my @headers = splice @file, 0, $numHeaders;
my @footers = splice @file, $#file-$numFooters, $numFooters;

for my $line (@headers) {
   # do whatever you want with the headers
}

for my $line (@file) {
   # process your data
}
[download]

The splice function(perldoc -f splice) returns whatever you chop out of your array, so if you don't want the headers or footers, just don't save them into new variables.

# Discard the headers and footers
splice @file, 0, $numHeaders;
splice @file, $#file-$numFooters, $numFooters;
[download]

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.