use strict ; my %seen = (); while(){ chomp; my($file,$version) = split(/vobx/,$_); print "$seen{$file} \n"; } __DATA__ /view/d602_edf3/vobx/copy/pp/copy/ticrwpth /view/d602_edf3/vobx/copy/pp/copy/ticrwptr /view/d602_edf3/vobx/copy/pp/copy/tirrwphz /view/d602_edf3/vobx/copy/pp/copy/tirrwprq