G'day MissPerl,

Welcome to the Monastery.

"... after a few days of self-learning perl ..."

I'd recommend reading through "perlintro - Perl introduction for beginners". It's not particularly long (about 10 screenfuls on my monitor) and will walk you through the basics. As you've only just started learning Perl, you have (quite understandably) made a number of novice mistakes: this document should go a long way to clearing up those problems.

In addition, it's peppered with links to more detailed information and advanced topics. Return to this document when the need arises, and delve into the specifics as required.