Piping output from awk to perl - perl

Question

I want to make an array in Perl with the values obtained from my awk script. Then I can do math on them in Perl.
Here is my Perl, which runs a program, which saves a text file:
my $unix_command_dsc = (`./program -s test.fasta saved_file.txt`);
my $dsc_run = qx($unix_command_dsc);
Now I have some Awk that parses that data saved in the text file:
#!/usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN{ # Initialize the values to zero. Note, done automatically also.
sumc4 = 0
sumc5 = 0
sumc6 = 0
}
/^[1-9][0-9]* residue/ {next} #Match line that begins with number and has word 'residue', skip it.
/^[1-9]/ { #Match line that begins with number.
sumc4 += $4 #Add up the values of the nth column into the variables.
sumc5 += $5
sumc6 += $6
print $4 "\t" $5 "\t" $6 #This will show the whole columns.
}
END{
print "sum H" "\t" "sum E" "\t" "sum C"
print sumc4 "\t" sumc5 "\t" sumc6
}
I run this Awk from terminal with the following commands:
./awk_program.txt saved_file.txt
Any ideas how I would gather this data from the print statements in awk into arrays in perl?
What I've tried is to just run that awk script in perl:
my $unix_command_awk = (`./awk_program.txt saved_file.txt`);
my $awk_run = qx($unix_command_awk);
But perl gives me errors and commands not found, like it thinks the data are commands. Should there be a STDOUT in the awk that I'm missing, rather than print?

Answer 1

It should just be:
my $awk_run = `./awk_program.txt saved_file.txt`;
Backticks tell perl to run the command and return the output. So your assignment to $unix_command_awk is running the command, and then qx($unix_command_awk) executes the output as a new command.

Answer 2

Pipe from awk to your perl script:
./awk_program file.txt | perl perl-script.pl
Then read from stdin inside the perl:
while (<>) {
# do stuff with $_
my #cols = split(/\t/);
}