I am trying to read a line of text from a file, and use it to create an array called @list so that I can access the individual elements. The text file is called testhash.txt and at present contains a single line of text that reads:
'key1,value1','key2,value2','key3,value3','key4,value4'

The script behaves as if @list is a single line of text rather than an array. Yet if I simply copy and paste the line of text into @list like so:

@list=('key1,value1','key2,value2','key3,value3','key4,value4');

then I can do arrayish things with it. Here is my script: 

#testhash.txt has a single line of text that reads: 
#'key1,value1','key2,value2','key3,value3','key4,value4'
open(HASH,"testhash.txt"); 

$line=(<HASH>);
chomp $line;
@list=($line);

@list=('key1,value1','key2,value2','key3,value3','key4,value4');
print "here is \@list:\n";
print $list[0];
print $list[3];
print "\nEnter the keycode:";
chop ($find=<STDIN>);
foreach (@list) {
    ($keycode,$keyvalue)=split /,/; #split up the array elements
    if ($find=~/$keycode/i) {
        print "Keycode $keycode has the value $keyvalue \n";
    }
}

[download]
Any help would be much appreciated because I'm clearly missing some vital point here!

In reply to How can I read a line of text from a file into an array? by fenners

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