use strict; open(DAT, "export.dat")||die "Cannot open export.dat for read:$!\n"; my @temp_lines; push @temp_lines, scalar ; my $closed = 1; while($temp_lines[0] !~ /^$/){ open(TEMP, ">temp.dat") if $closed; $closed = 0; push @temp_lines, (eof DAT) ? '' : (scalar ) ; print TEMP shift @temp_lines; if($temp_lines[0] =~ /^(1|)/){ close TEMP; &output_data(); $closed = 1; } } close DAT; sub output_data{ print "in output_data\n"; open(TEST, 'temp.dat')||die "cannot open temp in sub:$!\n"; while(){ chomp; print "$_\n" if $_ =~ /\S/; } print "end of output_data\n"; }