use strict; use warnings; my $prefix = 'P'; { my $first = 1; sub prefix_print { print $prefix if($first); print map { join($prefix, split(/^/,$_,-1)); } @_; $first = $_[-1] =~ m/\n$/; } } prefix_print("A\nB","C\n"); prefix_print("A\nB"); prefix_print("C\n");