use strict; my $count=1; while(){ s/\s//g; chomp; /^>/ ? print "\n " . $count++ . ": " : print; } __DATA__ > Seq 1 (two lines) AAAAAAAAAAAAA CCAAAAAAAAAAA > Seq 2 (two lines) AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA > Seq 3 (one line) TTTTTTTTTTTTAACTGAAGATTCGC