#! perl -slw use strict; local $/ = ''; my $n = 0; while () { $n++; next unless /INFORMATION I AM LOOKING FOR 2/; print 'Found the info at record ', $n; print; } __DATA__ START OF RECORD LINE 1 INFORMATION I AM LOOKING FOR 1 LINE 3 LINE 4 LINE 5 LINE 6 END OF RECORD START OF RECORD LINE 1 LINE 2 LINE 3 LINE 4 INFORMATION I AM LOOKING FOR 2 LINE 6 END OF RECORD #### C:\test>227789 Found the info at record 2 START OF RECORD LINE 1 LINE 2 LINE 3 LINE 4 INFORMATION I AM LOOKING FOR 2 LINE 6 END OF RECORD C:\test>