#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my @files_to_process= ( {data=>"The quick\n" . "brown fox\n" . "ran over\n" . "the purple\n" . "witch. So\n". "there!\n"} ); foreach my $record (@files_to_process) { while ($record->{data} =~/(.*\n)/g) { chomp (my $line = $1); my $second_line = ""; print "$line\n"; if ($line =~ /witch/) { if ($record->{data} =~ /(.*\n)/gm) { $second_line = $1; } print "-> $second_line\n" if $second_line; } } }