use 5.020; # includes strictures use warnings; my (@F1, @recs); while (my $line = ) { chomp $line; my @F = split '&', $line; @F1 = @F if $. == 1; die "NF mismatch" unless @F1 == @F; push @recs, \@F; for my $i (0 .. $#F) { next unless defined $F1[$i]; $F1[$i] = undef unless $F1[$i] eq $F[$i]; } } my @keep; defined $F1[$_] || push @keep, $_ for (0 .. $#F1); print join("\t", @$_[ @keep ]), "\n" for @recs; __DATA__ a=1&b=1&c=1&d=2&e=&f=3 a=1&b=2&c=3&d=2&e=&f=4 a=1&b=2&c=5&d=1&e=&f=5