#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Data::Dumper; my @rows; while () { my @data = (split(/\s+/,$_, 6))[0,1,3..5]; push (@rows, \@data); } foreach (@rows) { print "@$_"; } #prints #abc 322 aaa aadda dasdas a1 a2 a3 #def 433 dasd bdbdbd wings b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 __DATA__ abc 322 2/3/09 aaa aadda dasdas a1 a2 a3 def 433 3/4/08 dasd bdbdbd wings b1 b2 b3 b4 b5