Try the localtime function which comes with Perl. Alternatively try page 82 of the Perl Cookbook or even chapter 3 of the same book.
Concerning opening the file, is it being created where you think it should be? Your code example shows that it should be created in the same directory that you are running the script in - is this correct? You might want to add a variable describing the directory path you want to print to and use this to the $filename variable. So
$path = "C:/path/to/directory"
open(TEMPFILE, "$path/$filename") or die "Can't open file: $!\n";
...whatever
close TEMPFILE or die "Can't close file: $!\n";

[download]
If you're still having problems, try out ActiveState's documentation on reading/writing to files and directories. It comes with the software.
Good luck.

MadraghRua
yet another biologist hacking perl....

In reply to Re: still can't create a file using a variable by MadraghRua
in thread still can't create a file using a variable by pigeonjp

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.