use warnings; use strict; my $splitter = '|'; my $joiner1 = $splitter; my $joiner2 = ' '; while (my $record = ) { my ($head, @body) = grep ! m{ \A [\nSQ] \z }xms, split m{ \Q$splitter\E }xms, $record ; print join $joiner2, map join($joiner1, $head, $_), @body ; print "\n"; } __DATA__ AAAA|Q|dfadfsfaf|S|asfddsfasfdasdfaf|werwqr345435| BBBB|Q|ccccccccc|S|ddddddddddddddddd|eeeeee111111| FFFF|Q|ggggggggg|S|hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh|iiiiii222222| #### AAAA|dfadfsfaf AAAA|asfddsfasfdasdfaf AAAA|werwqr345435 BBBB|ccccccccc BBBB|ddddddddddddddddd BBBB|eeeeee111111 FFFF|ggggggggg FFFF|hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh FFFF|iiiiii222222