Try this if all you want is a combined total of all the things you're searching for A much more flexible solution is posted in a subsequent followup: 


my $count;

$count += tr/FIL/FIL/ while <DATA>;

print "F, I, and L occurred $count times.\n";

__DATA__
FDIELSIGCOXLSAGICK\n

[download]

Update:

This approach will give you a combined total count for all the items you're counting. If you want an individual count for each thing you're counting, with the ability to easily add or subtract items from the count list, see my followup post. Therein you will find two examples that both work well. The first (which I prefer) uses tr///, and the second uses index. I think you'll find those solutions to be much closer to what you need.

Hope this helps!

Dave

"If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein

In reply to Re: counting occurances by davido
in thread counting occurances by imlou

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