while (my $textline=) { if ( substr($textline,0,9) =~ /\S/) { #New record detected - Print out old one, and prep for new printf ("%s%s%s%s\n",$nodename, $filename, $backupdate, $pathname); $nodename = substr($textline, 0, 9); $filename = ''; $pathname = ''; $backupdate = ''; } $filename .= substr($textline, 10,19); $pathname .= substr($textline, 20,29); $backupdate .= substr($textline, 30); }