my $total_coverage = 0; #looping variable my $interval = "/Users/logancurtis-whitchurch/Desktop/chrX_divisions/"."$region"."_$filter".".txt"; #specifiecs intervals by region and filter version open (INTERVAL, "<$interval") or die "can't open interval file\n"; foreach ( ) { my (undef, $start, $end) = split '\s+', $_; my $subs_length = $end-$start; my $included_length = substr( $cgs, $start, $subs_length ); my $coverage = $included_length =~ tr[0][]; $total_coverage = $total_coverage + $coverage; } print "$total_coverage\n";