use strict; use warnings; open (RD, "input.txt") or die; open (WR2, ">>output.txt") or die; my $count=0; my $C="2001-1041"; my $found=0;#######Temporary variable to find the content in whole file while(){ if($_ =~ /$C/) { $count++;$found++; } } print WR2"$count=$C\n" unless($found);