use strict; use warnings; my %eslist; open(inFile, "< C:\\input.txt") || die "Unable to open file - $!\n"; open( OUTFILE, "> C:\\output.txt" ) || die "Unable to open write file! - $!\n"; while() { my @record = split /\|/, $_; my $tn = $record[0]; my $err = $record[1]; my $ent = $record[2]; %eslist = ($record[3] => 1); my $coid = $record[4]; } close inFile; close OUTFILE;