Assign each line to the $_ variable and try this to get the number of instances of < and >
The match operator works on $_ by default. If you match on < or > globally and assign it to an array like so:
@rights = m/\</g; @lefts = m/\>/g;
See the FAQ for a more efficient way to do this.
perldoc -q "How can I count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string"
You are left with arrays that contain all the matches. Now all you need to do is count the number of elements in each array like so:
$number_of_rights = $#rights; $number_of_lefts = $#lefts;
An array in scalar context returns the number of elements in that array. You are using the index of the last element of the array which *may* (or may not!) be one less than the number of elements.
John -- use Perl; program fulfillment
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