To echo what tilly said, don't use 'flag' for a variable name unless you're talking about a square or rectangle of cloth. Why not something more interesting like $seenJunkYet instead?

I'd rather go for something like 

#  Skip header junk
while(<>) {
  last if /end of header junk/;
}
#  Start processing real data
while(<>) {
  #  But quit if we see junk starting up again
  last if /start of trailer junk/;

  # Do useful stuff here
}

[download]
That way there aren't any flag variables. It's more lines of code, but it reads more easily.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

Life is short: get busy!

In reply to Re: Re: Processing lines after a pattern in a while loop by talexb
in thread Processing lines after a pattern in a while loop by NovMonk

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