[Chicago-talk] scalar question

[Richard Reina]

I know I should no this, but I don't and was wondering if someone could enlighten me.  I have some scalars that represent filenames and look like this

my $fl1=3321-1.pdf
my $fl2=3321-2.pdf
my $fl3=3432-1.pdf

I can get everything before the "-" like this:
$fl2=~s/\-.*//; # get the root of the filename    

but how can I do it without changing the contents of the original scalar? I'd like to put the result directly in a new scalar.

$root_name= $f12=~s/\-.*//; # get the root of the filename    

Thanks.
-- 
Richard Reina
Rush Logistics, Inc.
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