#!/usr/bin/perl -w use warnings; use strict; my %count; while () { chomp; my ($x,$y) = split /\s/; ($x,$y) = ($y,$x) if ($x gt $y); $count{"$x $y"}++; } foreach (sort keys %count) { print "people with $_: $count{$_}\n"; } __DATA__ cat dog cat fish pig dog horse fish pig fish dog fish fish cat