A beginner programmer here, I wrote a script to import dates for payroll periods from a text file, with the user inputting the start date(ex.12/20), the program prints the rest of the pay periods for rest of the year. The format for the imported file is: start: 1/3 end: 1/16, start: 1/17 end: 1/30, start: 1/31 end: 2/13, ...thru end of year. Script compares line number of date entered, prints it and rest of file. Works perfectly...but, I made a typo on line 7. Meant to type ">=" but instead used the hash binder "=>". If I use the correct(?) greater-than-or-equals-to, it prints entire file, which is not needed. The typo "=>" makes this work, but why does it work? 

       chomp($start_day = <>);  #month/day 
              open($fh,"< C:/Work/PAYROll.TXT");
              while($payperiod = <$fh>)
              {
              if($payperiod =~ /$start_day/) {
              $num = $.; }
              if($. => $num) {  #typo, meant >=
              print $.," ", $payperiod; }
              }

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In reply to why does typo work? by ggadd

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