Temporarily, I am working on different code to achieve the same result. So I may better understand Perl, I submit the following code, albeit not working. I gratefully await your expertise on why it does not work. Grateful for your expertise. This code erractically outputs to OUT. Where should chomp; go in this example? Both PERSON and MGR have an equal number of lines. The desired result is:

line1 from PERSON 
changetype: modify 
replace: manager 
line1 from MGR 

line2 from PERSON 
changetype: modify 
replace: manager 
line2 from MGR 

...etc... 

#! perl -slw 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
use diagnostics; 
use constant batchdir => "c:\temp10"; 

open (PERSON,"f1"); 
open (MGR,"f2"); 
open OUT, ">", "buildAD.ldif" or die "Cannot write to 'buildAD.ldif': 
+$!"; 
truncate (OUT, 0); 

my $line; 
my $line2; 

while ($line = <PERSON>) { 
#chomp; 
my @dn1 = split(/\s+/,$line); 
my $count = scalar(@dn1); 
print OUT "$line"; 
print OUT "changetype: modify"; 
print OUT "replace: manager"; 

while ($line2 = <MGR>) { 
#chomp; 
my @dn2 = split(/\s+/,$line2); 
my $count2 = scalar(@dn2); 
print OUT $line2, "\n", if ($count == $count2); 
} 
} 

close PERSON; 
close MGR; 
close OUT; 
exit;
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Example data in OUT is here, the extra newline on line 2 should not be there, and all the numbers after 2821 are from <MGR>.

0104 

changetype: modify 
replace: manager 
2821 


3682 


1129 


2050 


4054 


0755
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Much closer, I've written the following code, albeit also not working, with the same intent. The issue here is that, see OUT example below, only the first line of <PERSON> is read; instead of line1 from <PERSON>, then line1 from <MGR>, then line2 from <PERSON>, then line2 <MGR>, etc.

while (<PERSON>) {
        chomp;
        my $input1 = $_;
                while (<MGR>) {
                chomp;
                my $input2 = $_;
                        print OUT $input1;
                        print OUT "changetype: modify";
                        print OUT "replace: manager";
                        print OUT $input2, "\n";
                        }
}

exit;
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Output from OUT

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
4410

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
8050

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
0650

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
7030

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
9857

0479
changetype: modify
replace: manager
4380
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You are, once again, nesting loops when you do not intend to.

For better control of loops, separate the "loop" part from "Read input" for "MGR":

while (defined my $input1=<PERSON>) {
        my $input2 = <MGR> or die "No corresponding MGR for $input1";
        chomp $input1; 
        # Are you sure you want to chomp ? If so, you probably need \n
+ when printing
        chomp $input2;
        print OUT $input1;
        print OUT "changetype: modify";
        print OUT "replace: manager";
        print OUT $input2, "\n";
}
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     Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.        --Alan Perlis

Grateful for your guidance, I submit the following error based on your coding, please advise.

Can't modify defined operator in scalar assignment at build4c22.pl line 12, near "<PERSON>) " Execution of build4c22.pl aborted due to compilation errors (#1) (F) You aren't allowed to assign to the item indicated, or otherwise try to change it, such as with an auto-increment. BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at c:/Perl/lib/Carp/Heavy.pm line 11. Compilation failed in require at c:/Perl/lib/Carp.pm line 33.

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;

open PERSON, "<", "ou3" or die "Cannot read 'ou3': $!";
open MGR, "<", "ou8" or die "Cannot read 'ou8': $!";
open OUT, ">", "buildAD.ldif" or die "Cannot write to 'buildAD.ldif': 
+$!";

truncate (OUT, 0);

while (defined my $input1 = <PERSON>) {
        my $input2 = <MGR> or die "No file MGR for $input1";
        chomp $input1;
        chomp $input2;
        print OUT $input1;
        print OUT "changetype: modify";
        print OUT "replace: manager";
        print OUT $input2, "\n";
}

close PERSON;
close MGR;
close OUT;
exit;
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