#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; while () { next if /^NAME/ or /^\s*$/; #update changed \s+ to \s* print ''.(split (' ',$_,2))[1]; } =prints HT00000000 I HT00000000 S HT00000000 I HT00000000 M HT00000000 I HT00000000 I H000000000 I H000000000 O H000000000 I =cut __DATA__ NAME PT # AT DOE HT00000000 I DOE HT00000000 S DOE HT00000000 I SMITH HT00000000 M DOE HT00000000 I DOE HT00000000 I DOE H000000000 I DOE H000000000 O SMITH H000000000 I