I figured it out on my own, using the following code: REVISED CODE
open(DATAFILEIN,"$catagory.dat") || print "This section is
+ currently empty...Please check back often!";
print "<table border=0 cellpadding=0 border=0>";
flock (DATAFILEIN, 2);
while(<DATAFILEIN>) {
chomp $_;
@line_pair = split(/=/,$_);
$company_name = $line_pair[1];
$time = $line_pair[0];
$email= $line_pair[2];
$member1= $line_pair[3];
$member1phone= $line_pair[4];
$data= $line_pair[5];
$time2 = $line_pair[6];
$data = &stripBadHtml($data);
$password= $line_pair[8];
$pictureurl= $line_pair[7];
$website= $line_pair[9];
$member2= $line_pair[10];
$member2phone= $line_pair[11];
$address= $line_pair[12];
$citystatezip= $line_pair[13];
$fax= $line_pair[14];
$catlisting= $line_pair[15];
$currenttime = time ();
$difference = $currenttime - $time2;
#computing the number of seconds before it expires
$expires = $expire_after_days * 86400;
if($difference < $expires){
push (@temp,$_);
}
}
flock (DATAFILEIN, 8);
if (open(DATAFILEOUT, ">$catagory.dat") ) {
flock (DATAFILEOUT, 2);
print DATAFILEOUT @temp;
flock (DATAFILEOUT, 8);
}
open(DATAFILEIN,"$catagory.dat") || print "This section is
+ currently empty...Please check back often!";
print "<table border=0 cellpadding=0 border=0>";
while (<DATAFILEIN>) {
chomp $_;
@line_pair = split(/=/,$_);
$company_name = $line_pair[1];
$time = $line_pair[0];
$email= $line_pair[2];
$member1= $line_pair[3];
$member1phone= $line_pair[4];
$data= $line_pair[5];
$time2 = $line_pair[6];
$data = &stripBadHtml($data);
$password= $line_pair[8];
$pictureurl= $line_pair[7];
$website= $line_pair[9];
$member2= $line_pair[10];
$member2phone= $line_pair[11];
$address= $line_pair[12];
$citystatezip= $line_pair[13];
$fax= $line_pair[14];
$catlisting= $line_pair[15];
This works great...but if someone else has a better solution please let me know.