use strict; use warnings; my $line= 'AAALVDENEC'; my %counts; $counts{substr $line, $_, 2}++ for 0..length($line)-2; my @wanted = qw(AA AL DA DE DV VD DW QD SD HD ED DY VE EN EI KE NV VP FV SS WK KK); for (@wanted) { print "$_ => $counts{$_}\n" if defined $counts{$_}; }