#!perl -w
use strict;

my $buffer="";
my $suppress = 0;

my @field;
my %newline;
$newline{$_} = 1 for qw(MSH);

my %skipaccount;
$skipaccount{$_} = 1 for qw(77403 77404 77406 77407 77408 77409 77411 77412 77413 77414 77416 77418);


my $infile  = 'c:/rx_q.008';
my $outfile = 'c:/ftpscript/idxfile.txt';

open IN, "<$infile"  or die "Couldn't open $infile, $!";
open OUT,">$outfile" or die "Couldn't open $outfile, $!";



while (<IN>) {
##</code><code>##

 # Ok now $_ has scalar input from <IN>
##</code><code>##

 chomp();
##</code><code>##

 # and it's newline chomped

 # here is where it is confusing, there is nothing in @field,
 # let alone at $field[0] , do you mean to split up $_ into @field ???

##</code><code>##

 if ($newline{$field[0]})  {
       processbuffer();
  } 

##</code><code>##

 # OK , I am certain this is not doing what you expect
 #if ( index($newline{$_}, $skipaccount{$_}) != -1) {
 # $suppress = 1 if $skipaccount{$field[7]};
 #}
 # What you're aiming at (IMHO) is to set suppress to 1 if
 # the item at index 7 in your fields array (which is split from $_ right??)
 # is a member of the skipaccount hash.
 # the if (index($newline{$_} ) makes no sense to me, not in the least with
 # the data that appears to be in those objects.

##</code><code>##

  $buffer .= "$_\n";      
}

# Personally I prefer calling functions like this with an arg, rather than
# relying on a globar ($buffer in this case).
processbuffer();


sub processbuffer {
  print OUT $buffer unless $suppress;
  $buffer="";
  $suppress = 0;
}