foreach $item(@timearray){ $searchstring = "$NETID\|$month\/$date\/$year\|$item\|"; chomp($ECL=`grep "^$searchstring" /PHL/data1/PHL/tmp/ECL_STAT.txt`); if ( $ECL == "" ) { push @ECL, "||$item||"; } else { push @ECL, $ECL;} }