Like I said originally, no glue necessary, just:

# From DB
$template_file = "C:/Program Files/DirDictate/soap_form/soap_final.dot
+";

unless ( -f $template_file ) { ... }
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If you got that from the command line, still no glue necessary:

# Called as:
#   perl script.pl "C:/Program Files/DirDictate/soap_form/soap_final.d
+ot"

$template_file = $ARGV[0];
unless ( -f $template_file ) { ... }
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