Do exactly what you are saying, but in code.

my $count = 0;  #temporary variable to count with

$SQL = "SELECT * FROM $database_table order by date DESC, ID DESC limi
+t 10";
$sth = $dbh->prepare($SQL);
$sth->execute;
        
open(TXTFILE, ">$rootpath$categoryDir$frontPage"); 
while ($pointer = $sth->fetchrow_hashref) {                 
    $fullpath = $pointer->{'fullfilepath'};
    $name = $pointer->{'filename'};
    $thumbnail = $pointer->{'thumbnail'};
    $image = $pointer->{'image'};
    $imagewidth = $pointer->{'imagewidth'};
    $headlinelink = $pointer->{'headlinelink'};

    $count++; # umm...err...count
    if ($count > 2) {
       # if we counted to 3 then do something
       print TXTFILE "YOU AD HERE";
       # and now we start counting agian.
       $count = 0;
    }
      

print TXTFILE <<TEXT;
<a href=$url NOUNDERLINE id="headline"><font size="+1" face=arial>$tit
+le</font></a><br>
<font size="1">$category - $month $day, $year $catsiteshow</font><br>

TEXT
}
[download]

Using the modulo (%) operator is probably a bit more idiomatic way to do this rather than explicitly resetting the counter.

my $count = 0;
while( $count < 30 ) { print "count $count\n" if ++$count % 3 == 0; }
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Update: And a gripe for the OP: your open statement would be better written:

my $outfile = "$rootpath$categoryDir$frontPage";
open(TXTFILE, ">", $outfile )
  or die "Can't open output file '$outfile': $!\n";
[download]

You'll be thanking yourself for providing a useful error message n months down the road when something changes and you're one step closer to fixing it rather than trying to chase down a mysterious "write on a closed filehandle" error.

Definitely, but if your new to programming then the other method would be more intuitive even while being less idiomatic.


___________
Eric Hodges

Thanks so much!! I used this code but then it was printing the ads every 3 headlines. I changed this...

    $count++; # umm...err...count
    if ($count > 2) {
[download]

to this...

    $count++; # umm...err...count
    if ($count == 2) {
[download]

Then I reset the counter afterwards from

$count = 0 to $count = 4.

Thanks a bunch!