hi, have a look at my code below. what i'm trying to do is search through a text file and get it to list all the punctuation characters in it. but it doesnt do it exactly how i want it to. its seems as if it is goes over one line and lists the characters and then it starts over again on the next line and then adds anything to the hash. i want it to only print out the amount of times a punctuation character comes up at the end... 
#!usr/local/bin/perl

print ("Enter filename to search to punctuation characters: ");
$path=<STDIN>;
print ("\n");
open(DATA, "<$path") || die "Couldn't open $path for reading: $!\n";
while (<DATA>)
{
    while (s/([\041-\057]|[\72-\100]|[\133-\140]|[\173-\176])(.*)/$2/)
+ #ASCII octet punctuation                                            
+ #characters
    {
        $char = $1;
        $wordHash{$char}++;
    }
    
    while ( ($punctuation, $count) = each(%wordHash) )
    {    
        $wordArray[$i] = "$punctuation\t$count";
        $i++;
        print ("$punctuation\t$count\n");
    }
}

[download]
i get the right output, just i get it over and over again for some characters.. i dont know why! for example if i put in the filename as "wordHash.pl" which is the actual file (code) above it prints out this: 
/       3
#       1
!       1
/       3
#       1
!       1
/       3
:       1
#       1
"       2
)       1
(       1
;       1
!       1
$       1
/       3
=       1
:       1
#       1
>       1
"       2
)       1
<       1
(       1
;       2
!       1
$       1
\       1
/       3
=       1
:       1
#       1
>       1
"       4
)       2
<       1
(       2
;       3
!       1
$       4
\       2
/       3
|       2
=       1
:       2
#       1
,       1
>       1
"       8
)       3
'       1
<       2
(       3
;       4
!       2
$       4
\       2
/       3
|       2

=       1
:       2
#       1
,       1
>       2
"       8
)       4
'       1
<       3
(       4
;       4
!       2
$       4
\       2
/       3
=       1
:       2
,       1
"       8
<       3
;       4
!       2
|       2
{       1
#       1
>       2
)       4
'       1
(       4
$       5
\       10
/       6
=       1
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       4
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       1
#       1
>       2
)       7
'       1
(       7
$       5
\       10
/       6
=       1
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       4
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       2
#       1
>       2
)       7
'       1
(       7
$       7
\       10
/       6
=       2
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       5
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       2
#       1
>       2
)       7
'       1
(       7
$       9
\       10
/       6
=       2
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       6
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       3
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       7
'       1
}       1
(       7
$       9
\       10
/       6
=       2
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       6
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       3
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       7
'       1
}       2
(       7
$       9
\       10
/       6
=       2
:       2
*       1
,       1
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       6
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       3
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       7
'       1
}       2
(       7
$       11
\       10
/       6
=       3
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       6
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       3
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       10
'       1
}       2
(       10
$       11
\       10
/       6
=       3
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       8
.       1
[       4
<       3
;       6
!       2
]       4
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       10
'       1
}       2
(       10
$       15
\       11
/       6
=       4
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       10
.       1
[       5
<       3
;       7
!       2
]       5
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       2
)       10
'       1
}       2
(       10
$       16
\       11
/       6
=       4
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       10
.       1
[       5
<       3
;       8
!       2
]       5
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       4
)       10
'       1
}       2
(       10
$       18
\       13
/       6
=       4
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       12
.       1
[       5
<       3
;       9
!       2
]       5
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       4
)       11
'       1
}       2
(       11
$       18
\       13
/       6
=       4
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       12
.       1
[       5
<       3
;       9
!       2
]       5
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       4
)       11
'       1
}       3
(       11
$       18
\       13
/       6
=       4
:       2
*       1
,       2
-       4
"       12
.       1
[       5
<       3
;       9
!       2
]       5
|       5
{       4
%       1
#       1
>       2
+       4
)       11
'       1
}       4
(       11

[download]
please help... <EDIT> sorted it, sorry. i had the second while loop within the first. when i put it outside of the 1st loop it worked! </EDIT>

20060130 Janitored by Corion: Added readmore tags

In reply to punctuation search... using ascii by Yoda_Oz

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