my $checkthree = param('check'); #### use strict; use warnings; my $checkthree = param('check'); #### open IN, $data or die "Cannot open $data for reading:$!\n"; #### while (my $line =) { my (undef,undef,$three,$four,undef) = split "\t",$line; if ($three eq $checkthree) {print "$three found before $four in line $.\n"; last;} } close DATA;