I am reading a book called learning perl. It is from 1999 so yes it is old. Do you know of a newer book that includes exercizes in the chapters?
Also, big thanks to you all. I got this piece working :)
If this is 'Learning Perl' by Randal Schwartz, et al., then the fifth edition was published last year by O'Reilly. I'd strongly recommend buying it, Perl has had a few changes in the past 13 years.