my %unique_paths = (); while () { chomp; my ($drive, $path) = split /:/; $unique_paths{$path}++; } for (keys %unique_paths) { print "$_\n"; } __DATA__ D:/myfiles/Test/ E:/pics/cgi-bin/new/ C:/temp/ D:/new/files/ F:/new/more/ C:/test/cgi-bin/ac/ C:/new/files/