in reply to help: extracting multiple lines from file based on match in one line

use strict;

my $counter=1;
$/="</Rec $counter>";
my $first_file;
my $second_file;

while (my $record=<DATA>) {
    $first_file .= $record unless $record=~m/var2 = 3/;
    $second_file .= $record if $record=~m/var2 = 3/;
    $counter++;
    $/="</Rec $counter>";
}
print "FIRST FILE: $first_file\nSECOND FILE: $second_file\n";

[download]
__DATA__
<Rec 1>
var2 = 5
some text
some text
some text
some text
</Rec 1>
<rec 2>
var2 = 3
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
</Rec 2>
<Rec 3>
var2 = 7
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
</Rec 3>
<rec 4>
var2 = 3
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
some text
</Rec 4>

[download]

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom