File entries are in this format "LName","FName","Zip","County","Town" code is here $log_name = "zipfile.txt"; my $exclude = "$input{'FName'}, $input{'LName'}, $input{'county'}"; my @excludes = split (/ /,$exclude); local @ARGV = ($log_name); local $^I = '.bak'; LOOP: while (<>) { foreach my $entry (@excludes) { next LOOP if (/$entry/); } print; } }