foreach () { @fields = split '*', $_; # ... blah, blah, blah ... } #### %company_count; foreach () { ($company_name, ...) = split '*', $_; $company_count{$company_name} ++; } # foreach sort (keys %company_count) { foreach (sort keys %company_count) { print $_, " showed up ", $company_count{$_}, " times\n"; }