A few people commented that I wasn't clear in my question and also asked for example input and output. The input in this loop is:

my @empty_square = qw(+----+
                      |....|
                      |....|
                      |....|
                      +----+                    
                     );
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We iterate over several of these boxes, and need to replace . with spaces and a number in the upper left hand corner. I have some logic, that isn't included hear, to determine when to add the number.

The desired output of this loop would be if $putNum is true, the replace |....| with |1   | the first time, |2   | the second, etc. However, all it does now, if $putNum is true, it replaces all |....| with |1   |.

I can fix this if I replace the following:

foreach my $boxLine ( @empty_square) {
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with

foreach my $line ( @empty_square) {
    my $boxLine = $line;
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I hope this makes it clearer. --Sparkey