#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my @prints; while () { chomp; $prints[--$_]="print this one"; } open IN, '<', 'grep' or die 'dulce et decorum est'; open OUT, '>', 'gout' or die 'dulce et decorum est'; while (<>) { print OUT if shift @prints } close IN; close OUT; __DATA__ 1 3 5 8