my ( %merged, %evalues, %lowest ); while ( ) { chomp; my ( $evalue ) = m/\s(\S+)$/; my ( $k, $v ) = split /\s+/, $_, 2; $merged{$k} = $merged{$k} ? "$merged{$k}\t$v" : $v; if ( ! exists $evalues{$k} || $evalue < $evalues{$k} ) { $evalues{$k} = $evalue; $lowest{$k} = $_; } } open my $f1, ">", "file1~" or die $!; print $f1 "$_\t$merged{$_}\n" for sort keys %merged; open my $f2, ">", "file2~" or die $!; print $f2 "$lowest{$_}\n" for sort keys %lowest; __DATA__ Q3KIL4_PSEPF ONE 134 380 1 252 216.3 6.3e-64 Q3M236_ANAVT TWO 107 563 1 468 203.2 5.3e-60 Q3M236_ANAVT THREE 250 494 1 277 219.1 8.6e-65 Q3M5F5_ANAVT FOUR 296 608 1 355 166.2 7.4e-49 Q3M5F5_ANAVT FIVE 299 584 1 304 188.2 1.7e-55 Q3M7Z1_ANAVT SIX 51 181 1 140 99.0 1.2e-28 Q3MAD2_ANAVT SEVEN 107 508 1 468 350.1 3.3e-104 Q3MAD2_ANAVT EIGHT 230 457 1 277 201.1 2.3e-59 Q3MBT3_ANAVT NINE 203 606 1 468 102.5 1.1e-29 Q3MBT3_ANAVT TEN 326 559 1 277 221.6 1.6e-65 Q3MBT3_ANAVT ELEVEN 134 333 1 234 -334.1 2.7e-44 Q3MD63_ANAVT TWELVE 173 491 1 355 248.5 1.2e-73