#!/usr/bin/env perl -l use strict; use warnings; my @values; while () { chomp; push @values, $_; if (@values == 3) { process_values(@values); @values = (); } } process_values(@values) if @values; sub process_values { my ($i, $j, $k) = @_; print '$i = ', defined $i ? $i : ''; print '$j = ', defined $j ? $j : ''; print '$k = ', defined $k ? $k : ''; } __DATA__ a b c d e f g h #### $i = a $j = b $k = c $i = d $j = e $k = f $i = g $j = h $k =