I'm a bit puzzled now. I tried your solution and it works fine but so does this 
$id = 1; # <--- semicolon was missing
open(MYFILE,"/var/tmp/mylist.dat") or die "Cant open mylist.dat"

while (<MYFILE>) { # <--- wrong file handle fixed
      chomp;
      split /,/;
      die "Request Id $id already present in file\n" if $_[0] eq $id;
}

close MYFILE;

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What is the difference in using an array or doing it as above ? I thought split will split a string into an array of strings anyway. Hence I'm a bit puzzled as to why I explicitly have to use an array as per your example. Is this better programming practice ?

In reply to Re^2: Access elements of $_ by Anonymous Monk
in thread Access elements of $_ by Anonymous Monk

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