#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; # https://perlmonks.org/?node_id=11140211 use warnings; my $data =<< "END"; head1|head2|head3 val1|val2|val3 val1|val4|val5 val6|val4|val5 val2|val7|val5 val3|val7|val3 END open my $fh , "<", \$data or die "can't open input file $!"; my @headers = split /[|\n]/, <$fh>; my %seen; while( <$fh> ) { my @row = split /[|\n]/; $seen{$_}{shift @row}++ for @headers; } print join "\n", "UNIQUE VALUES for $_:", (sort keys %{ $seen{$_} }), "\n" for @headers;