tlug: Easy (?) perl syntax question

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

I'm trying to get a cgi variable (called "formnum") into a string.  If
the variable is not in the input the string should be blank.

1.This code gives a server error:
  $formnum="";
  if($data{'formnum'} eq "1")$formnum="1";


2.This sets to "1" correctly, but the extension does not get appended
to $filename. It seems there is something in the $formnum that
terminates the string early??
  $formnum=$data{'formnum'};
 $filename= $BASE . "/" . $formnum . $extension;


I'm obviously misunderstanding something fundamental here. Can anyone
tell me what it is?
(To add to that, I went through the perl online manuals, and as far as I
can see my syntax is correct. So now I'm really confused!)

Yoroshiku,

Darren

PS. the script I've inherited is already using a library to parse the cgi
inputs into the data array, and the rest of the script works fine.


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