my $file = `filename`; chomp($file); open(my $data, '<', $file) or die "Couldn't open '$file'\n "; while (my $line = <$data>){ $line =~ s/\s+/ /g ; $line =~ s/\" \"/\"\"/g ; $line =~ s/\n+//g ; $line =~ s/\s+$//; if ($line !~ /select/ && $line !~ /spool/ && $line !~ /\|\|/ ){ my @array = $line; my $result; for (@array){ chomp; $result .= $_ . " "; } $result =~ s/\s+//g; print "$result\n";