That is better, but:

• The program itself still doesn't run, I removed the main() section, and just opened a file with filehandle DATA, it runs with some errors. So some more clean up is needed.
• Your explanation helps, can you give the desired output for that input data? and what output you're getting from the $statgrp (i.e, how you want to extract the output from $stargrp?) I'm a little unsure what you expect for the 409... case (Is the fifth row's 'FF' supposed to be 'FT'?)
• Just a remark, while it's interesting to see a real problem in criminal justice, please don't assume we know the terminologies, which is usually the blocking issue for the rest of us. For example, I assume the first column is "statue", the second column is "degree", and third column is "case type". You want a shortest statue and degree combination that determines a case type. Am I right?

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