Hi Chris, Check this if it helps. <CODE> #!\usr\bin\perl -w use strict; use Carp;
my( $Cell,$CBR,$CDM1,$CDM2,$CDM3,$TFU1,$TFU2,$CCU,$EVM,$TXAMP,$CTRM ) =('Cell','CBR','CDM1','CDM2','CDM3','TFU1','TFU2','CCU','EVM','TXAMP','CTRM'); my $header='HR 17-21 HEH Report'; croak "please, specify input file" unless $ARGV[0]; my $filename=$ARGV[0]; my($cell,$count)=0; open my $fh, '<', $filename or croak "ERROR opening $filename: $!"; open FILE,">",'output.txt' or croak "can't open file:$!"; while(my $line=<$fh>) {chomp $cell; if ($line=~/HEH/sixmg){ ++$count; # NOTE: this might not be the best way to go in case your $cell values changes ($cell=$line)=~s/(?:.*?)CELL\s+([0-9]+)\s+(.+?),.*?HEH$/$1/ixmg; } }write FILE; close FILE or croak"can't close file"; close $fh or croak"can't close file"; format FILE_TOP= @|||||||||||||||||||||||||| $header @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< @<<<< $Cell, $CBR, $CDM1 , $CDM2 , $CDM3, $TFU1, $TFU2, $CCU, $EVM, $TXAMP, $CTRM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . format FILE= @<<<<<<<<<< @### $cell, $count . </CODE> Please note the dot in the format 'template'. regards, Tim