Hello again newperlbie,

(1) Please read Markup in the Monastery “Chapter 1” and update your post accordingly.

(2) “in fact that was my previous comment, but I removed it”

In future, please use <strike>...</strike> tags around discarded text rather than deleting it. Also clearly mark any updates as such. This will reduce the likelihood of confusion for responders to your posts.

(3) “I figured a way to grep it from the middle of the line.”

Good! (But then, why the next question?)

(4) “The key column can be any where ,not necessarily last....what should be the adaptation now.”

Can the key column change from one line to another? Is it guaranteed that the key words will never appear accidentally in non-key positions within a line? If so, you can just test for the presence of a keyword anywhere in the line with a simple regular expression:

while (<DATA>)
{
    if (/\b$first\b/ .. /\b$last\b/)
    {
        $in = 1;
        print;
    }
    elsif ($in && /\b$last\b/)
    {
        print;
    }
    else
    {
        $in = 0;
    }
}
[download]

(In a regex, \b matches a word boundary.)

Hope that helps,

newperlbie:   Further to Athanasius's post:   Please see How do I change/delete my post? for site etiquette and protocol regarding changes to your post.

(And yes, please do add  <code> ... </code> tags. :)