$varalias =~ s/=.*//;  # Delete everything(.*) from the equals on
$vartarget =~ s/"$//;  # Delete the quote at the end($)
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# If able to delete the stuff(.*) between the beginning
# of the line(^) and the word 'alias' and one-or-more spaces(\s+)
# found after that ...
if (s/^.*?alias\s+//)
{
     # Extract the 1st, 5th and 7th "words"
     my ($varalias, $varsource, $vartarget)
           = (split(' '))[1,5,7];

     # Then whatever...
}
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print OUT <<END_HTML;
<FOO>
<FOO>$varsource
<FOO>
<FOO>$vartarget
<FOO>
<FOO>
END_HTML
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if ($something)
{
      some_code();

      if ($something_else)
      {
             some_other_code();
      }
}
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#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;      ## keeps you honest, makes you a better programmer
use warnings;    ## this too...
use diagnostics; ## for explanations of error an warning messages
require 5.006;


## use the html generation methods in the infamous CGI module
use CGI qw/:standard/;

my( $infile, $outfile ) = ( 'prevplanin.txt', 'prevplanout.htm' );
my ($varalias, $varsource, $vartarget);

## indent your code properly
{
  ## localize your typeglobs so you don't pollute the namespace.
  ## this is done by creating them with [local] inside a block
  local( *IN, *OUT );
  
  ## always test for failures on file open
  open( IN, "<", $infile ) or die "ERROR: can't open $infile: $!"
  open( OUT, ">", $outfile ) or die "ERROR: can't open $outfile: $!";

  ## select the filehandle, so you don't have to specify it when you p
+rint
  select OUT; 
  ## specify autoflush mode, so print output is line buffered
  $|++;
  
  # print your html header
  print start_html( 
    -title => 'PLAN VERIFICATION', 
    -bgcolor => "#FFFFFF", 
    -text => "#000000",
  );

  ## set your input record seperator. here i chose newline followed by
+ "alias "
  ## this way you can support multi-line input strings
  $/ = "\nalias ";
  
  ## for each record
  while( <IN> ) 
  {
    ## split the space-seperated fields of your record
    ## take a slice of the array [split] returns
    my( $alias, $source, $target ) = (split)[0,4,6];
    {
      ## use CGI's html generation to create your table
      print table(
        { -width="37%", -border="0", -cellspacing="1", -cellpadding =>
+ "0" },
        [
          Tr( 
            { -bgcolor => "#0099CC", }, 
            td( { -colspan => "2" }, 'alias retrieved' )
          ),
          Tr(
            td( 
              { -width => "11%", -bgcolor => "#CCCCCC" },
              b( 'alias' ),
            ),
            td(
              { -width => "89%", -bgcolor => "#FFCC99" },
              $alias,
            )
          ),
          ## repeat for $source and $target
          ## ...
          
          ## you don't need $i, you can use $. instead (current record
+ number)
        ]
      );

    }
    print OUT "</body></html>"
  }
  
  ## finish your page
  print end_html();

  ## remember to check return status of close, too
  close( IN ) or warn "Warning: can't close file: $!";
  close( OUT ) or warn "Warning: can't close file: $!";
  
  ## we're done with *OUT, select a valid filehandle
  select STDOUT;
}
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~Particle *accelerates*