thanks for the reply. Apologies if this isn't clear I tried to keep it concise as possible so not to overload with code. This wasn't directly from my code so will paste a larger part see if it makes sense. The code is admittidely very ugly but its doing a very specific job. The @sequences is a list of two strings separated by a tab defined earlier still in the programme. @searchmotif is a short list of things to search for. I don't think I need to split the $temp3[0] into an array can just pattern match it but thought I'd leave this as it was written to see if it is clearer The larger bit of code is:

foreach my $line4 (@sequences) {my @temp3 = split ( '\t', $line4);
        my $counter = 0; 
        my $paa = chop ($temp3[0]);
        my @fouraas = split ( '', $temp3[0]);
                if ($paa =~ /s/i ) {$pStotal++;
                            foreach my $key (@searchmotif)
                                {unless ( my @stemp = grep ( /$key/, @
+fouraas)){ push (@{$nsaminoacids{$key}},$temp3[1]);next;} #closes if 
+loop        
else      { push (@{$saminoacids{$key}},$temp3[1]); next;} #closes if 
+loop            
                                  } #close foreach loop
                                 } #closes if S loop
elsif ($paa=~ /t/i ) {$pTtotal++;
                              foreach my $key (@searchmotif)
                                {if (my @ttemp = grep ( /$key/, @foura
+as)){ push (@{$taminoacids{$key}},$temp3[1]);
                                                              } #close
+s if loop
                                      else      { push (@{$ntaminoacid
+s{$key}},$temp3[1]);
                                                              } #close
+s if loop            
                                   } #close while loop
                                 } #closes if T loop
elsif ($paa =~ /y/i ){$pYtotal++;
                              foreach my $key (@searchmotif)
                                {if (my @ytemp = grep ( /$key/, @foura
+as)){ push (@{$yaminoacids{$key}},$temp3[1]);
                                                              } #close
+s if loop
                                  else      { push (@{$nyaminoacids{$k
+ey}},$temp3[1]);
                                                              } #close
+s if loop            
                                   } #close while loop
                                 } #closes if Y loop
else        {push (@error, "$line4\tNot recognised p amino acid\n"); }
                
                } #closes foreach loop
[download]

i really don't understand why its not only using one of the actions after the unless command. This whole section if almost affectively just 3 repeats of what I posted ealier.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.