Isn't it a little silly to go on to try and read from whichever file handle after the open has failed? You've got two flags set (errorcheck2 and error_flag), so at least use one to skip around the "while <>".
It looks like you're expecting to have a number of possible failures - make sure to include useful data like file name that failed and why: if ($errorcheck2 eq "TRUE") { print mainlog "ERROR \- data table $table$data_ext missing for validation ($fileDir open failed: $!)\n"; $error_flag = "TRUE"; } Andy Bach, Sys. Mangler Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] VOICE: (608) 261-5738 FAX 264-5030 "I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry." _______________________________________________ Perl-Win32-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe: http://listserv.ActiveState.com/mailman/mysubs