Does your data fit into memory? If not, it gets more complicated (or you just have to wait a long time for the data file to get read dozens of times). You would either have to store it into a database or compress it (i.e. 'z' is 1, not-z is 0, so that every element uses just one bit)

If yes, read the file into an Array of Arrays:

my @data; 
my $n=0;
while ($organized=<DATA2>) {
  chomp;
  $organized=~s/(\s)\w+/$1z/g;
  push @{$data[$n++]}, (split /\s+/, $organized);
}

[download]

Now accessing column 5 of line 2 is just a simple $data[2][5]

Now to get it easier, split your problem into easier parts. Create a subroutine that gets as parameter an arbitrary number of columns. This subroutine just counts all rows that have a 'z' in all these columns. You can do that with a loop (over the selected columns) inside a loop (over all rows).

If you got that working (test it with some simple data), just create another array, add a random number. Then repeatedly add a random number (that is not already in the array) to the array, call the subroutine with it. Do that 18 times.

In reply to Re^5: regular expessions question: (replacing words) by jethro
in thread regular expessions question: (replacing words) by $new_guy

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