Everyone's welcome. The best questions are the ones that are unambiguously asked, with some sample code reduced to a self-contained snippet that can be run, that demonstrates the issue and nothing more. Sample input and expected output are useful too. It helps if one takes the time to read perlintro, and later perlsyn, perlsub, and the various POD documents that end in 'tut' (tutorial).

An old programmer will have no trouble picking up a new tool. We do enjoy helping.