I am reading in strings from an outside file. Each line has the same number of characters and the same data in the same position within the string. I used the following code to separate the characters into varables: 
($beginning,$agency,$district,$ssn,$serv_per_m,$serv_per_y,$serv_per_t
+,$last_name,$first_name_i,
$middle_name_i,$cover_group, $pay_code, $pay_rate, $earnings, $holder,
+ $ret_percent,$surv_ben,
$work_sch_code,$cont_amt,$cont_code,$stuff) = 
/(\d)(\d{4})(\d{3})(\d{9})(\d{2})(\d{2})(\d)(\D{10})(\D)(\D)(\d{5})(\d
+{2})(\d{8})(\d{6}\D)(\s{8})(\d{4})(\d{3})(\d{3})(\d{5}\D)(\d{2})(.*\s
+)$/;

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The variables are listed on three lines but the regular expresions are all listed on one long line. I then run a loop to read each line and print several of the variables just to see how it's workiing. It works as desired for several lines then a couple of lines will produce the following error: 
Use of uninitialized value $last_name in concatenation (.) or string a
+t final_check.pl line 47, <> line 14

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Then it will print several lines correctly and then some more of the error messages.

I am currently running PERL 5.10.0 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread (with 3 registered patches)

Any suggestions?

In reply to string error message by sgmansell

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