I can't believe this string is that weird

girarde has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am chopping up a collection of xml records into separate files, and everything is tickety-poo EXCEPT that the field for the registration date gets skipped. I am running ActivePerl 5.8.8 build 822. The code looks like this:

open (BOX, "<", "U:/documents/mpcrequeststack.txt");

my $can = '';

my $case = '';

while ($can = <BOX>) {
    $can = <BOX>;
    $case .= $can;
    if ($can =~ /^<\/ACCESS_REQUEST>/) {

        my (@stamp) = gettimeofday();
        my $stamp = join '.', @stamp;
        open CLIP, ">", "\\\\server\\share\\dbgroom\\$stamp.xml" or di
+e $!;
        print "$case\n";
        close CLIP;
        $case = '';
    }
}
[download]

The source file has one field per line. The <REGISTRATION_DATE> fields look like ' Thursday, April 13, 2006 at 16:11:53 (CDT) '. It is not missing from any of the records. What am I missing? UPDATE: Removed some lines of commented out code.

Comment on I can't believe this string is that weird Select or Download Code

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Re: I can't believe this string is that weird by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on Sep 19, 2008 at 20:03 UTC
`while ($can = <BOX>) { $can = <BOX>;` [download] This is reading two lines from <BOX> into $can, and discarding the first. Just delete the second $can = <BOX>	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: I can't believe this string is that weird by girarde (Hermit) on Sep 19, 2008 at 20:15 UTC
Yes, FunkyMonk and ikegami are both right. I'm still puzzled, because of the times I seem to remember having to do it this way, but I'm not going to argue with results.	[reply]
Re: I can't believe this string is that weird by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 19, 2008 at 20:04 UTC
`while ($can = <BOX>) { <- reads one line $can = <BOX>; <- reads another` [download] Is that really what you wanted to do? I think the second line should be deleted.	[reply] [d/l]