if ($read) { if ($more) { # do something } } #### #!/usr/bin/perl -w #or use warnings; #### foreach $line (@File_pre_format) { $file_pre_format .= $line; } # better: $file_pre_format = join '', @File_pre_format; $file_pre_format =~ s/\n//g; $file_pre_format =~ s/\t//g; # better: $file_pre_format =~ s/\n|\t//g; # or in this simple case even better: $file_pre_format =~ tr/\n\t//d;