devarishi:

Yes, it sounds like you've got a handle on it, now. Note that you can also have a filter on the input, too. So if you wanted to process the records in sorted order, you could open the incoming data stream with a filter to do so.

Regarding the $FH file handle versus the FH version: Modern perl practice discourages the old style (FH) style. The older style continues to work, obviously, but using a file handle in a scalar allows you a bit more flexibility in scoping and a bit more simplicity when passing the file handle to subroutines and such.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.