My code isn't pretty, my verbage isn't exact and I probably don't have all my facts together (story of my life). I know what I want with this script: to join three simple lines line 1,2,3 then repeat over and over again with 4,5,6 until the end of the file. the lines are the same, date,date,text. The text line will often end in a date however making things difficult for me, I think. My current code when run gives me this output:

ARRAY (0x99a03c)
ARRAY (0x99a08c) ........... I imagine hidden behind all that is my data?


</c>
my $line = <fh>;

# Skip first line
die if !defined($line);
$line = <fh>;

# Skip second line
die if !defined($line);
$line = <fh>;

while (defined($line) && $line !~ /^© Copyright/) {
chomp( my $date1 = $line );
$line = <fh>;

die if !defined($line);
chomp( my $date2 = $line );
$line = <fh>;

die if !defined($line);
my $body = $line;
$line = <fh>;

my $body = '';
while ( defined($line)
&& $line !~ /^\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{4}$/
&& $line !~ /^© Copyright/
) {
$body .= $line;
$line = <fh>;
}
chomp( $body );
push @recs, [ $date1, $date2, $body ];

}
print @recs, [ $date1, $date2, $body ];

foreach(@recs) {
print "array element: $_\n";
}

select ($out);
printf @res;


# Skip copyright line
die if !defined($line);
$line = <fh>;

# Skip another line
die if !defined($line);
$line = <fh>;
die if defined($line);

close ($out);
close (fh);

</c>


Thanks,
Jon

You have an array of arrays, so instead of this:

foreach(@recs) {
   print "array element: $_\n";
}

foreach (@recs) {
   print "array elements: @{$_}\n";
}

HOORAY!!! This got me past the annoying frosted glass problem. I can now see the two date fields. But what, pray tell, have I done wrong that is prohibiting the text field from showing up. The third line. Below is the actual data I am working with. The FIX you provided allows me to only view the Dates. Thanks again. Jon

01/16/2009
01/14/2009
Document #:R40129:> Projections of FY2009 Federal SCHIP Allotments Under CHIPRA 2009
01/16/2009
01/14/2009
Document #:R40130:> H.R. 2: The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009
01/16/2009
01/13/2009
Document #:R40131:> Administrative Appeals in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service

Hard to say, your code is, well, uhh...... strange. If your file is consistent and its:

date
date
text
date
date
text

there is no need to do all that checking, just put the three lines into your array

chomp(my $d1 = <fh>);
chomp(my $d2= <fh>);
chomp(my $line = <fh>);
push @recs, [$di, $d2, $line];