What segment of the script is designed to meet that requirement?
 chomp(my @strings = <FILE>);

@strings is a variable stored in memory that contains the lines of FILE (one line per position in the array)

And could someone please explain if the infinite "while (1)" loop is required for this?

The infinite while asks for an input pattern, the only way of exiting from it is "typing" an empty pattern (i.e. /^\s*$/). Because the program doesn't know when the user will enter an empty pattern, it iterates forever checking if the pattern is empty.

citromatik

UPDATE: Of course, TIMTOWTDI:

perl -e 'while (<>!~/^\s$/){print "Not empty\n"}'

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In reply to Re: Don't re-read file for each new pattern... by citromatik
in thread Don't re-read file for each new pattern... by cgmd

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