WITH the $diff code it is NOT subtracting the two numbers which is what I need. I think the problem is $_ contains data from the original app command which is regular files 62,622 597.488G 641547379187 archdone files 62,535 597.008G 641032761295 and so I am saying subtract what is in field 1 , well field 1 is empty, but why???? finally, I took away the + from the print and I had some errors, why is the + infront of the split needed in Perl? thank you, derek 
my $dev  = qw/original1/;
my $dev1 = qw/clinical1/;
my $diff=0;
        open (FOO, "samcmd a $dev 2>\&1 |" ) || die 
 "unable to open pipe... Broken? $!";
        while (<FOO>) {
             if (/regular files|archdone files/) {
                local $, = "\n";
                #s/^\w+(\s+)\w+(\s+)// && s/,//,;
                s/,//, print +(split)[2], $,;
                if (/^\d+/) {
                        diff -=$1; ##--## 62622-62535
                }
            }
        }
        print "Difference is: $diff\n";

close (FOO) or warn "unable to close file $!";

__DATA__
regular files  62,622    597.488G          641547379187
archdone files 62,535    597.008G          641032761295

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In reply to print +split by drock

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