#!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; use 5.012; my $data = "Region Item volume Month"; my @da = split /\s+/, $data; while( my($daix, $_) = each @da ){ /volume/ and print "volume $daix\n"; /Item/ and print "Item $daix\n"; /(volume|Item)/ and print "$1 $daix\n"; } __END__