I would like to be able to help you but, as lima1 says, your description of the problem is difficult to understand. I'm afraid the code you posted in response to lima1's reply hasn't shed much light on the problem because you do not show how you are reading your file and we can only make assumptions regarding how the @t array is intialised. Also, what is the purpose of the %hash associative array (nice meaningful name, BTW :-)?

It would help us to help you if you could provide the output you would expect to get from the data you show and if you could break down your description in paras. 1 & 2 into smaller steps it might help us understand better. I find the +/- etc. malarkey particularly unclear.

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