You could also look at the File::Find module for traversing directories. Here is your code rewritten using File::Find:

#!perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use File::Find;

my $dir = 'c:/My Projects/Perl Scripts/New Folder';
my $directory_count = 0;
my $file_count = 0;
my $outfile = 'log.txt';

find(
    sub {
        # $_ contains the name of the current file
        # $File::Find::name contains the full path of the current file
+ relative
        #  to the directory given to the find() function
        # $File::Find::dir contains the name of the current directory
        if(-d $_){  # if file is a directory
            $directory_count++;
        }
        elsif(-f $_) {  # else if file is a plain file
            $file_count++;
        }
    },
    $dir
);

open my $log, q(>), $outfile or die "Can't create logfile; $!";
print {$log} "Directories: $directory_count\n";
print {$log} "Files: $file_count\n";
close $log;
[download]

Here are a few things regarding the code that you submitted:

• The directory that you specified to search looks like a Windows path, but you have a Unix path in the shebang line. The shebang line isn't necessary on Windows, except that Perl may look here for switches, such as -w.
• You need to use the -d operator to test for a directory. The -f operator tests whether the file is a plain file.
• It is preferable nowadays to use a variable as a reference to a filehandle, rather than using a bareword; since a bareword is global, it may clobber an existing filehandle.
• The code open OUTF, "> $outfile" or die print " can't create logfile; $!"; doesn't do what you might think. If the file can't be opened, the print function will execute, printing the message, which will return a true value, which die will use as its message. So you might get output something like this:

  1 at script.pl line 10.
  Can't create logfile; Access is denied.
  [download]

  The arguments passed to die() will be printed to STDERR for you, so you needn't bother with print().
• The final exit 0; isn't that necessary in Perl, unless you want to explicitly return a value from your script.
• toolic mentioned perltidy above for properly formatting your code. There is another tool called Perl::Critic which you can use to apply various coding standards to your code. It is an excellent module for learning some good coding practices and you can easily modify it to match your own personal coding preferences.

Update: Links fixed.

---

---

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! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

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:
	&		&
	<		&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.