rdfield has the right idea: databases are built for this kind of thing, so use them - it's all about using the best tool for the job.

However, in general, if you want to tally categories in Perl, the best way is to use a hash, as in:

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
my %hash;
(chomp, $hash{$_}++) for <DATA>;
print Dumper(\%hash);
__DATA__
camel
flea
camel
dog
frog
jabberwock
frog
camel
__END__
$VAR1 = {
          'flea' => 1,
          'camel' => 3,
          'dog' => 1,
          'jabberwock' => 1,
          'frog' => 2
        };
[download]

In your case, you would search the input line for a bargain reference, and then increase the value of the entry in the hash corresponding to that bargain reference. Thanks to the magic of autovivifications, the entry for any new bargain references are automatically created for you.

CU
Robartes-