we have this Perl forms script (perl 4) that needs to be modified so that it includes a unique character string (number and/or text) automatically inserted into the generated output when the form is submitted with user information.

Currently, the relevant code outputs like this:

 print $ITEMOUT "Subject:   Request_Number:  \n";

with the "Reqest_Number:" followed by blank text, but the new version of our processing software requires that the "Request_Number:" string be followed by a unique number or text string (for the form submission to be processed without errors.)

I'm thinking of getting the date/time from system and inserting it after the "Request_Number:" as a means of generating a unique string.

Any suggestions for doing this using date/time stamp or other better means of generating unique string. This is not a high volume form, so I thought the date/time is "unique enough"

thanks in advance..from someone new to PERL