VERTEX: while ($line1 = ) { if ($line1 == $ek) { # print "BLOCK END\n"; $line1 = ; if ($line1 = eof) { last VERTEX; } } my @vertex = ( scalar($line1), scalar(), scalar(), scalar(0) ); $vertexcount = $vertexcount + 1; chomp @vertex; push @datavertex, \ @vertex; }