/^\s+Order ID:([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)\s+fiscal cycle:(\d+)/ #### my $in_rec = 0; my ($head_re, $tail_re) = (qr/Start of record/, qr/End of record/); my @record; while (<>) { chomp; if ($in_rec) { if (/$tail_re/) { $in_rec = 0; parse_record(@record); } push @record, $_; } else { if (/$head_re/) { $in_rec = 1; @record = (); } push @record, $_ if $in_rec; } }