Thank you both for helping me. Here is an example and the outcomes. Please let me know if you need any further info. Thank you again!

Perl Script:

sub scanSQLErrorlog {
……
# now open the errorlog file for scan
unless (open(LOG, "$sqlErrorlog")) {
$ref->{log_open_error} = "***Error: could not open $sqlErrorlog for read. ";
$ref->{log_open_error} .= Win32::FormatMessage(Win32::GetLastError);
return $ref;
}
# get the very first errorlog line. It has the version info.
$_ = <LOG>;
if (/^\s*(\d\/\-+\s+\d\:\.+)\s+(?:kernel|Server|spid\d+)\s+(Microsoft\s+SQL\s+Server.+)/i) {
($ref->{first_recorded_date}, $ref->{sql_version}) = ($1, $2);
}
……
}

The first line of SQL server 2000 error log is like:
2007-05-30 08:29:03.17 server Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.2040 (Intel X86)
After running the script,
$ref->{first_recorded_date} has “2007-05-30 08:29:03.17”
$ref->{sql_version} has “Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.2040 (Intel X86)”

The first line of SQL server 2005 error log is like:
2007-05-30 15:49:21.56 Server Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - 9.00.3054.00 (Intel X86)
After running the script,
$ref->{first_recorded_date} has nothing.
$ref->{sql_version} has nothing.
It does not grip anything from the log of SQL 2005. There is no error message.