Hi, I posted a couple of days ago asking how to make array sout of a text file, I tried it but found that it didn't exactly fit my needs. What I need to be able to do is input a text file and process the contents of it - being able to grab any piece of data and output it in any order. here's an example of a text file that i'll be using... 
HDR,831 Reconciliation,200008081441EST
BGN,11,000000158,20000808,10520000
OTI,GH,BT,WEDI620000802,159
AMT,2,231644
AMT,BT,231644
AMT,NP,0
QTY,46,10
QTY,53,0
QTY,54,10
QTY,55,0
TED,ZZZ,BATCH AWAITING 831
OTI,TR,CK,0021000095,159,000101416
TED,ZZZ,MOD CHECK ON RDFI-ID FAILED

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Note: there could be multiple lines that begin w/QTY, TED and OTI. What I did was write a PERL script that inputs the file, creates an array of six items (for those that don't have six items it fills the empty ones in as blank), it then goes and counts how many of the first item appears. Here is the code I have written thus far (i know it's not the most efficient but it works!) 
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5
#PERL Script

#1. Input the  text file containing the formatted info

open (FILE,"<824.txt")
     || die "Can't open file $!";

    @lines = <FILE>;


#initialize the counters
    $HDRcount = 0;
    $BGNcount = 0;
    $OTIcount = 0;
    $AMTcount = 0;
    $QTYcount = 0;
    $TEDcount = 0;


#Create the main array

foreach (@lines) {
    chop;
    ($key, $first, $second, $third, $fourth, $fifth) = (split(/,/));
    $key  = "" if !defined($key);    #I know this part isn't needed bu
+t i'd rather not get errors
    $first  = "" if !defined($first);
    $second = "" if !defined($second);
    $third  = "" if !defined($third);
    $fourth = "" if !defined($fourth);
    $fifth  = "" if !defined($fifth);
    $sixth  = "" if !defined($sixth);

    print("Key=$key   1=$first   2=$second   3=$third   4=$fourth   5=
+$fifth\n");


#Search through firstElementArray counting up each instance of
#    HDR, BGN, OTI, AMT, QTY, TED


    if ($key eq "HDR") {
        $HDRcount++;

        #create an array here, similiar to @HDR($first, $second, $thir
+d)
    }
    $BGNcount++ if ($key eq "BGN");
    $OTIcount++ if ($key eq "OTI");
    $AMTcount++ if ($key eq "AMT");
    $QTYcount++ if ($key eq "QTY");
    $TEDcount++ if ($key eq "TED");
    }


#test to make sure it works
print("HRD=$HDRcount  BGN=$BGNcount  OTI=$OTIcount  AMT=$AMTcount  QTY
+=$QTYcount  TED=$TEDcount\n");
close(FILE);

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What I would like to be able to do is go in and output the data in any format. For example, to print out the second and third items of all the QTY's and print the third item in the HDR and the fourth and fifth of all of the OTIs. I've been looking at associative array's/hashes and everything else and I really don't know what to use. Any suggestions?

In reply to Creating the right type of array... by Anonymous Monk

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