use strict; while() { #using re match. # match beginning, anything except comma, # followed by a comma and 'Y' if(m/^([^,]+),Y/) { print "RE Name:" . $1 . "\n"; } } __DATA__ davis,N brown,Y smith,Y,N,B jones,N,Y,B,A clarke,Y,N,Y #### use strict; while() { my @data = split(','); if($data[1] eq 'Y') { print "RE Name:" . $data[0] . "\n"; } } __DATA__ davis,N brown,Y smith,Y,N,B jones,N,Y,B,A clarke,Y,N,Y