ICL VME, >shudder<that brings back memories...
$ARGV[0] is the first paramter supplied to your script.
When you have to parse a common file format, the first response should be to search CPAN (or for a faster response, metacpan.org)for the format, there you will discover Text::CSV a module which handles all the edge cases that may arise in your data.

Welcome to Perl, you'll find it much handier to script in than scl once you get the hang of it...

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.