if statement printing when it shouldnt :)

[charles]

i currently have a form that is generated by the perl script panel.pl

within the html, i have:

<form action="http://localhost/cgi-bin/panel.pl";
method="post">
<b>View the Current List of Aliases</b><br>
<input type="hidden" name="view_name" value="1">
<input type="submit" value="View list of email addresses"><P>
</form>


also in the html, i have:

if ($formdata{view_name}) {
  $view = $formdata{view_name};
  $viewtag = "1";
}

and

if ( $viewtag = "1" ) {
  print "The value of \$view was $view\n<p>";
}

i would have thought that the second statement would not print since the
form had not been "submitted". however, instead, the if statements' print
does get stuck into the html.

i am assuming that this is because pointing my browser at the perl script
will cause it to read the entire script seeing the hidden form field even
though the form hasnt been "submitted" by the viewer?