#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; $/ = "Query="; my $count = 0; while () { chomp; s/^\s+//; my @record = split(/[:\n]/, $_); $count++; print join(' : ', @record), "\n"; } __DATA__ Query= M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1128 1:N:0:1+@M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1128 2:N:0:1 Length=501 Query= M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1129 1:N:0:1+@M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1129 2:N:0:1 Length=501 Query= M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1130 1:N:0:1+@M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1130 2:N:0:1 Length=501 Query= M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1131 1:N:0:1+@M01133:26:000000000-A6UCG:1:1101:22656:1131 2:N:0:1 Length=501