No, I just needed to open it once. Here's my code:

open(DATFILE, "$path/$whatdir.txt") || die("Could not open file!");
@datfile=<DATFILE>;
close(DATFILE);

foreach $newline(@datfile) {
next unless ($newline=~/^$whatfile/);
($ecoursedesc,$ecoursenum,$ecoursename,$ecredits,$eregional,$egradreq)=split(/\|/,$newline);
last;
}



And that appears to do the trick :)



Peter