First, use CGI.pm to parse the data from the get and post.

Second, understand that you are not dealing with a database, but a flat file. Big difference. If you are stuck with a flat file, sobeit but it is not a database.

Try opening the file for read, put it into an array, loop through this array, push each record onto a new array unless a match is found and then print the contents of the second array into the file: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw

use CGI qw(:standard);
use strict;


# delete a specific line
if (param('action') eq 'delete'
{
  open(FILE,"$file");
  while(<FILE>)
  {
    chomp;
    ($company_name,$street,$city_st_zip,$phone,$fax,$website,$email,$c
+ategory,$storefront,$logo,$alpha,$first_name)=split(/\|/);
    if (param($company_name) eq $company_name || ....) # match
    {
        push(@file,$_);
    }
  }
  close(FILE);
  open(FILE,>$file);
  {
    foreach (@file)
    {
        print FILE $_ . "\n";
    }
  }
}

[download]

I am not totally sure this will solve your problem but it will make your code easier to read and therefore easier to debug.

I admit it, I am Paco.

In reply to Re: Wierd DB Question by jonjacobmoon
in thread Wierd DB Question by lisaw

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.