Here's a quick test case to show you how this can be done:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

while(<DATA>){
    my ( $id, $dp, $ln, $fn, $nm ) = split /:/;
    print "$id $dp $ln $fn $nm\n";
}
__DATA__
011349786:200:Singer:Samuel:6
[download]

Your code cannot be actual code because you have an extra '}' in there ($NM = $5;}). If you show us a fuller code fragment, along with a few more lines from your logs, I'm sure we can do something better. I suspect you have scoping issue.

Cheers,
Ovid

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