use File::Basename; #list of filenames to normalize my %index_file_names = map{ $_ => 1 } qw( index.html index.htm index.php index.asp index.cgi ); sub normalize_url { my $old_url = $_[0]; chomp($old_url); #saves name at the end my $filename=basename($old_url); if( exists $index_file_names{ $filename } ) { #saves the directory part my $normalized_url=dirname($old_url); $normalized_url; }else{ #don't need to normalize url $old_url; } }