I had never seen the "=~" operator used for numeric comparison before. This is called the "binding" operator, described in perlop as follows: "binds a scalar expression to a pattern match."

So, when you do this:  if ( $v =~ 1 ) what's really happening is that the numeric "1" is being converted to a string and used as a regular expression, and the condition will be true if the current value of $v, when converted to a string, contains a digit "1". Try the following command line (may need to fiddle with the quotes, if you're using an ms-dos shell): 

perl -e '$x = 213; print "got a one\n" if ($x =~ 1)'

[download]
For me, that prints "got a one". For comparing numeric values, you want: 
if ( $v == 1 )

[download]
and of course, if that condition proves to be false, do you really need to test again for this condition? 
elsif ( $v != 1 )

[download]

In reply to Re: Counting Data in two columns? by graff
in thread Counting Data in two columns? by sdslrn123

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.