it is a question

data:
abcdefgh
<----- (Blank space just enter enter)
ijklmno

Problem:
How do i tell perl to skip this line if i m making a loop????

sample:
while (<DATA>)
{
if ($_ =~ ????????????) <--- don t know
{
}
else
{
print OUT $_;
}
}

I have a value coming back in a Perl program that may be an array or just a single value. The problem is that I need to somehow determine this before trying to access it or I get an error. I could have the value 23 coming back or the value 23- 1- 3- 5 etc. Is there an intelligent/elegant way to deal with this problem?

im using the recommended open (FILE- ">>$file") with $file = "enquiries.txt"
i use ftp to upload my files to the server- i have created a perl script that resides on the server that takes information from html form posts- and is supposed to save it to the server- instead it tries to save it to the client pc instead

Can anyone kindly explain to me what does the following expression mean in PERL programming?

If (/^\s*\.*?\s+\.*?\s+(.*?)\s+.*\s*$/) {
print “$1\n”;
}