note krusty Perhaps you could show us a few lines from the file to give us a sample? So what you are saying is that the number you are looking for is more like an id number or phone number than a line number? So that when you say "the line number will be used to pull the line" you perhaps mean something more like the "phone number", to use your example?<BR><BR> If there are no repeats of the line number you want from anywhere else in the file, then perhaps the following:<BR> <CODE> undef $/; my $number = 42; #or $number = $ARGV[0] or whatever line number you were looking for my $file = <FILE>; my ($line, $name); # ($line) = $file =~ /$($number\s+.*)/m; # would store the whole line ($number, $name) = $file =~ /$($number)\s+(.*)/m; # use the second form since you just want number and name # and yes, you are overwriting the value of $number # with itself all over again. Use (undef, $name) = $file... # if that makes you feel more comfortable. </CODE> 719673 719678