If I modifiy your code so that it is stand alone and doesn't require external applications then I don't see the problem you describe. Can you modify this code to reproduce the error (without introducing external dependencies)?

use strict;
use warnings;

my @times;
my $timeDisplay;
my $timeMinute = '56';
my $timeHour = '34';

while(my $line = <DATA>) {
    chomp $line;
    unshift(@times, $line);
}

$timeDisplay = join (":", "$timeHour", "$timeMinute");
unshift(@times, $timeDisplay); #puts in new time to queue

foreach my $i (@times) { #prints back into fileTimes to update
print "$i\n";
}

__DATA__
12:34
56:78

[download]

Prints:

34:56
56:78
12:34

[download]

My guess is that your external application (date) is returning newlines at the end of its string. You might want to take a look at some of the Perl date and time handling functions (time, gmtime and localtime) and modules (Date::EzDate and many others) rather than calling an external application.

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re: joining two variables and printing them to a file? by GrandFather
in thread joining two variables and printing them to a file? by terms5

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.