Good post, you are getting the hang of it :).

The substr stuff in my code uses the two special arrays @- and @+ which store the start and end points for the captures in the previous match. So, as you say the next if line skips the data line just read in the last if line, but when the header line didn't match.

Don't worry about how bad your first post might be. You are learning fast and the other monks will smile at you as they pass in the hall.