my $exists = 0; while () { ($userName,$emailAddress,$division,$fullName) = split(/\|/, $_); while (@lines) { my $pattern = pop @lines; $pattern=~s/\n//g; if ($emailAddress =~ /$pattern/) { $exists = 1; last; } } if ($exists) { print "$emailAddress exists\n"; } else { print "$emailAddress doesn't exist"\n"; }