Re: parsing data in a file

[talexb]

You should be programming defensively here:

my ($fname,$lname) = split(" ",$name);

Instead of that, I'd recommend

#  If there are two names separated by a space ..
my ($fname,$lname);
if ( $name =~ /\w+\s\w+/ ) {

  #  Separate them into first and last names.
  ($fname,$lname) = split(" ",$name);

} else {

  #  Otherwise, decide what to do with just a single name.
  #  Use the name as a last name? Die? Ignore?

}

Don't assume that your input's always going to be clean.