$ perl -E ' > $_ = q{1 AC2 34 TRP A 6 ALA A 7 ILE A 14 GLY A 15}; > @e = grep { ( ++ $i ) % 6 } split m{(\s+)}; > say join q{}, map { shift @e } 1 .. 5 while @e;' 1 AC2 34 TRP A 6 ALA A 7 ILE A 14 GLY A 15 $