my @Srecs; while( ) { if( /^S AGT/ ) { push @Srecs, $_; } elsif( /^R AGT/ ) { die "R-record with no corresponding S-record" unless @Srec; my @sRecBits = split ' ', shift @Srecs; my @rRecBits = split ' ', $_; ## Calculate stuff } } if( @Srecs) { printf "There were %d unmatched S-records\n"; scalar @Srec; } ## Other stuff