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];
[download]

This works great...but if someone else has a better solution please let me know.

---

---

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! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

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:
	&		&
	<		&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.