open $file_fh, "$file" or die "unable to open $file for read : $!";
@lines = <$file_fh> ;
foreach $line(@lines) {
      if ( $line =~ /fred\s+(\w+)\s+barney\s+(\w+)\s+joe\s+(\w+)/i ) {   
      $company = $1 . "_" . $2 . "_" . $3 . "_" . "inc";


# this would assign "flintstone_rubble_rockhead_inc"  to $company
# but how could I come up with the same string, if the 3 names were in the six possible sequences?
# 123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321 etc,..
# so that it would still assign the word following "fred" as the first capture, the word
# following "barney" as the 2nd capture, and the word following "joe" as the 3rd capture,
# now matter what order the names are on the line.