It has all to do with scoping.
my declares a variable for the current scope. Basicly, a scope is a part of code between { and }. Or at least, that is how I understand it. Please, monks, correct me if I'm wrong.
But, with this information, it's pretty clear why your code is not working:
...
if (/^##recstart/) {
my ($junk,$recno) = split;
# $recno declared for this block
$recno =~ s/'//g;
}
elsif (/^##v/) {
my ($junk,$qno,$junk2,$vtext) = split (/ /,$_,4);
# both $qno and $vtext declared for this block
$qno =~ s/'//g;
$vtext =~ s/'//g;
}
else {
# nothing declared at all for this else block
print OUT "$recno^$qno^$vtext";
}
}