I've seen this assignment many times in many different beginning programming language classes. I doubt that you created this game on your own. If this is a homework assignment, say so. Also, please note that SHOUTING is frowned upon here.

The basic problem with updating any disk file is that since it is fundamentally a sequential device (processes things in a serial order), you cannot just modify something in the middle of a single file. You cannot read and write to the same file at the same time when using variable length records. The easy solution for this problem is to read all of the file's data into memory. If the data needs to changed, then re-write the entire file. You can use either an array or a hash to store the data in memory.

Past this issue, the problems with your code are legion. The use of a while(1) loop is just not appropriate here. That sort of thing appears in applications like servers. Here, you should strive to put the condition that causes the loop to exit in the while () condition. Improper loop design is at the root of this confusing mess. All of this labeled redo: stuff just goes away if the loop is designed correctly. Indenting and spacing are important in programming style.

Another way to code this problem: 

#!usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my %scores;

print "Current Scores for each player:\n";
print "#Tries\tName\n";
open FILE, '<' ,"high_scores.dat" or die "can't open high score file $
+!";
while (<FILE>)
{
   chomp;
   my ($score, $name) = split ',',$_;
   print "$score\t$name\n";
   $scores{$name}=$score;
}
close FILE;

print "Starting the guessing game...I've picked a number between 1 and
+ 100\n";
my $goal = int(rand(100)) + 1;
my $guess=0;
my $count=1;

while ( (print "Enter your guess: "), 
        ($guess= <STDIN>) !~ m/\s*(quit|exit)\s*$/ 
      )
{
    next if $guess =~ /^\s*$/;   # just reprompt for blank lines
                                 # does not increment $count
    chomp $guess;
    
    if ($guess =~ m/\D/)
    {
        print "Only numbers are allowed!\n";
        next;
    }
    if ($guess <1 or $guess>100)
    {
        print "Guesses must be between 1 and 100!\n";
        next;
    }
    
    if ($guess < $goal)
    {
       print "Your guess is too low!\n";
    }
    elsif ($guess > $goal)
    {
       print "Your guess is too high!\n";    
    }
    else  #$guess == $goal
    {
       print "Hurray! You've got it in $count tries!\n";
       
       print "Enter your name: "; 
       my $name = <STDIN>;
       chomp $name;

       if (exists $scores{$name}) 
       {
          print "Previous Score for $name was $scores{$name}\n";
       }
       $scores{$name}=$count;  #update current score
          
       open FILE, '>' ,"high_scores.dat" or die "can't open high score
+ file $!";
       foreach (sort{$scores{$b} <=> $scores{$a}}keys %scores)
       {
           print FILE "$scores{$name},$name";
       }
       close FILE;
         
       $count = 1;
       print "Playing again, enter quit or exit to stop\n";
       next;
    }
    
    $count++;
}

print "Thanks for playing the game.\n";

[download]

In reply to Re: Random numbers and substitution by Marshall
in thread Random numbers and substitution by hasnainzeenwala

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.