Folks I am trying to make an application that will loop over each line in a text file, and format output. However, the first line is dropping the decimal. Looking for some ideas on how to fix this and explain what is going on. I created my working copy in Python; however, I really want to learn Perl over Python.

#!/usr/bin/perl


#checkbook
#2017-06-20

## This app will create a general ledge

sub format_value {
    local $_  = shift;
    1 while s/^([-+]?\d+)(\d{3})/$1,$2/;
    return $_;
}


$item_date = "DATE";
$item_description = "DESCRIPTION";
$item_account = "ACCOUNT";
$item_debit = "DEBIT";
$item_credit = "CREDIT";
$item_balance = "BALANCE";
$blank_debit = "          ";
$blank_credit = "         ";

open (file_read, "input-checkbook.txt");
open (file_write, ">checkbook.txt");


sub runScript {
  $main_balance = 0.00;
  $format_main_balance = sprintf("%.2f",$main_balance);
  

  while ($line = <file_read>) {
    @fields = split /,/, $line;
    chomp(@fields);
    $date = @fields[0];
    $description = @fields[1];
    $length_description = length($description);
    
    if ($length_description > 40) {
      $description = substr $description, 0, 40;
      substr($description,-1) = "~";
    } else {
      $description = @fields[1];
    }
  
    if (@fields[2]){
      $debit = @fields[2];
      #$debit_decimal = sprintf("%.2f",$debit);
      $format_debit = format_value($debit);
      $main_balance = $main_balance - $debit;
      #sprintf file_write "%s\n", $l_format_main_balance;
      $format_main_balance = format_value($main_balance);
      #$format_main_balance = sprintf("%.2f",$format_main_balance);
      printf file_write "%-11s %-41s %10s %11s %11s\n", @fields[0], $d
+escription, $format_debit, $blank_credit, $format_main_balance;
    } else {
      $credit = @fields[3];
      #$credit = sprintf("%.2f",$credit);
      $format_credit = format_value($credit);
      $main_balance = $main_balance + $credit;
      $format_main_balance = format_value($main_balance);
      #$format_main_balance = sprintf("%.2f",$format_main_balance);
      printf file_write "%-11s %-41s %10s %11s %11s\n", @fields[0], $d
+escription, $blank_debit, $format_credit, $format_main_balance;
    }   
  
    
  }
}

printf file_write "%-11s %-41s %-11s %-11s %-10s\n",$item_date,$item_d
+escription,$item_debit,$item_credit,$item_balance;
printf file_write "===================================================
+=====================================\n";


runScript();


close(file_read);
close(file_write);
exit;
[download]

Text file

2017-05-01,starting balance to track character count,,900000.00
2017-05-01,phone bill dsfsdfsfdsfsfsfsdfsfsfsfsfdfsdfsfsfsfsf,300000.0
+0,
2017-05-03,Water,100000.34,
2017-05-05,Electric Bill,900.21,
2017-06-03,debit 45678901dfsf2345678901234567890ddddddddddddd,30.32
2017-06-03,12345678901234567890123456789034,,30.98
2017-06-03,credit 8901234567890123456789034567890123,,30.98
2017-06-03,credit dfdfd01234567890123456789034567890123,,30.98
2017-06-08,Food,23.00,
2017-06-12,Cash,20.00,
[download]

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