I figured it out on my own, using the following code: REVISED CODE

            open(DATAFILEIN,"$catagory.dat") || print "This section is
+ currently empty...Please check back often!";
            print "<table border=0 cellpadding=0 border=0>";

    flock (DATAFILEIN, 2);
    while(<DATAFILEIN>) {
    chomp $_;
        @line_pair = split(/=/,$_);

                $company_name = $line_pair[1];
                $time = $line_pair[0];
                $email= $line_pair[2];
                $member1= $line_pair[3];
                $member1phone= $line_pair[4];
                $data= $line_pair[5];
                $time2 = $line_pair[6];
                $data = &stripBadHtml($data);
                $password= $line_pair[8];
                $pictureurl= $line_pair[7];
                $website= $line_pair[9];
                $member2= $line_pair[10];
                $member2phone= $line_pair[11];
                $address= $line_pair[12];
                $citystatezip= $line_pair[13];
                $fax= $line_pair[14];
                $catlisting= $line_pair[15];

        $currenttime = time ();
        $difference = $currenttime - $time2;
        #computing the number of seconds before it expires
        $expires = $expire_after_days * 86400;
        if($difference < $expires){
            push (@temp,$_);
        }
        
    }
    flock (DATAFILEIN, 8);
    if (open(DATAFILEOUT, ">$catagory.dat") ) {
        flock (DATAFILEOUT, 2);
        print DATAFILEOUT @temp;
        flock (DATAFILEOUT, 8);
        }

            open(DATAFILEIN,"$catagory.dat") || print "This section is
+ currently empty...Please check back often!";
            print "<table border=0 cellpadding=0 border=0>";

            while (<DATAFILEIN>) {
                chomp $_;
                @line_pair = split(/=/,$_);
                $company_name = $line_pair[1];
                $time = $line_pair[0];
                $email= $line_pair[2];
                $member1= $line_pair[3];
                $member1phone= $line_pair[4];
                $data= $line_pair[5];
                $time2 = $line_pair[6];
                $data = &stripBadHtml($data);
                $password= $line_pair[8];
                $pictureurl= $line_pair[7];
                $website= $line_pair[9];
                $member2= $line_pair[10];
                $member2phone= $line_pair[11];
                $address= $line_pair[12];
                $citystatezip= $line_pair[13];
                $fax= $line_pair[14];
                $catlisting= $line_pair[15];
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This works great...but if someone else has a better solution please let me know.