Unless I've missed something, can't you just use split to get the job done?

while (<DATA>)
{
  my @Data = split ( /\s+/ );
  print "Compare $Data[2] and $Data[5].\n";
}
__DATA__
  50545  4.393864E+00  .0   50546  9.589456E+00  .0
  50547  2.690474E+00  .0   50548 -1.668896E+01  .0
  50549 -3.391918E+01  .0   50550 -3.634581E+01  .0
  50551 -3.176630E+01  .0   50552 -1.747830E+01  .0
  50553 -5.256684E-01  .0   50554  1.135265E+01  .0

[download]

This code seems to work fine.

--t. alex
Life is short: get busy!

Update: D'Oh! Sorry -- I thought the objective was to compare the numbers in exponent notation, not the integers before them. Thanks gjb.

In reply to Re: How can I match between two integer numbers by talexb
in thread How can I match between two integer numbers by Anonymous Monk

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