Is there perhaps some code around this that you are not showing to us? I tried your example on Perl 5.10.0 and it ran fine for me: 
>type \help\perlscripts\test2.dat
C:\HELP\Docs\R2009\sp01\

>dir C:\HELP\Docs\R2009\sp01\
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 74E6-4409

 Directory of C:\HELP\Docs\R2009\sp01

09/25/2009  09:57 AM    <DIR>          .
09/25/2009  09:57 AM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  224,589,967,360 bytes free

>perl pathq.pl
Found C:\HELP\Docs\R2009\sp01\

>perl -v

This is perl, v5.10.0 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread

[download]

In reply to Re: Trouble using a Win32 file path in an array by ramlight
in thread Trouble using a Win32 file path in an array by geo

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.