Happy New Year and many more! Here's my story. I'm working on a script that will process huge text files (forwarded spam) and pull certain elements that I need to work with in a database. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
### sting ###

### Table Setup ###
# CREATE TABLE subject_info 
# (id int not null auto_increment, plaintif varchar(100) not null, sub
+ject longtext not null, 
# date varchar(50) not null, primary key (id));

use warnings;                    
use strict;
use DBI;


            #file variables and flags#
my $flag = '0';
my $spamcop_email = shift || 'c:\frodo\mail\spamcop_email.txt';
my $text_output = shift || 'c:\frodo\output\text_output.txt';

            #regex parameters and variables#
my $from = 'From:    ';
my $full_subject = 'Subject:    ';
my $date = 'Date:    ';
my @buffer = ('','');
            #initialize arrays#
open (SCEMAIL, "$spamcop_email") || die "Can't open $spamcop_email";
my @spamcop_email_array=<SCEMAIL>;
close (SCEMAIL);

open (TEXTOUT,  ">$text_output") || die "Can't open $text_output";
            
            #loop and fill @buffer#
foreach (@spamcop_email_array){
    if(s/.*$from//){
        $buffer[0] = $_;
        $flag = 0;
        }
    if(s/.*$full_subject//){
        $buffer[1] = $_;
        $flag = 0;
        }
    if(s/.*$date//){
        $buffer[2] = $_;
        $flag = 0;
        print TEXTOUT @buffer;
        }
    }
    
close TEXTOUT;

            #DBI Connect and Insertion#
        my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=SpamCopBot; host=lo
+calhost",
                    "amearse", "tttttt", {'RaiseError' => 1});
        my $sth =$dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO subject_info (plaintif, su
+bject, date) VALUES ('$buffer[0]', '$buffer[1]', '$buffer[2]')");
            $sth->execute();
            $sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect();

[download]
As you can see, the three elements are printed to both text file and database. I have put the flags there to reject dupes, but I know that they currently do nothing. The first problem occurs in the text output. Here is a snippet to show you what I'm talking about. 
52387348@reports.spamcop.net
Wednesday, January 02, 2002  10:52 PM
52432604@reports.spamcop.net
[SpamCop (http://web1.customoffers.com/unsubscribe.asp?emid=1008&email
+=x) id:52387348] 4HourWireless Special of the Month - Signal Booster
Wednesday, January 02, 2002  11:28 PM
52496384@reports.spamcop.net
[SpamCop (http://web1.customoffers.com/unsubscribe.asp?emid=1008&email
+=x) id:52432604] 4HourWireless Special of the Month - Signal Booster
Thursday, January 03, 2002  12:20 AM
52553913@reports.spamcop.net
[SpamCop (http://web1.customoffers.com/unsubscribe.asp?emid=1009&email
+=x) id:52496384] AWARD CONFIRMATION
Thursday, January 03, 2002  01:04 AM

[download]
Notice how the first result is missing the subject line? Well actually, it has been bumped down to the next result, creating a real problem when it comes to output validity. What is the cause of this? I have checked my data sources and they are fine, all the necessary info is there. It is strange to me, I am testing this on 20 emails, so I should see 60 lines of text output, however I only get 59 lines, with the last subject line dropped, but replaced by the one above it. That said, the next problem is in the database entry. When I check the results, the database has only aquired one entry though I had expected 20. 
| id | plaintif | subject | date |

|  6 | 52531044@reports.spamcop.net
 | [SpamCop (http://web1.customoffers.com/unsubscribe.asp?emid=1032&em
+ail=x) id:52531044] Membership
 Confirmation for G G
 | Thursday, January 03, 2002  12:48 AM |

[download]
This entry is the correct three elements from the last email of the twenty. I'm a bit lost, could you please sound off on any possible solutions to clean up my output and database entries? Bests, amearse

In reply to The contents of a misguided array. by amearse

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