note graff Apart from the problem cited in the first reply, you could accomplish the same goal with a lot fewer lines of code -- e.g. this: <c> if ( $abbr =~ s/([123][sdp])// ) { push(@abbr, $1); $abbr =~ s/\s//g; }; </c> will replace 45 lines of OP code (the 5-line block that is repeated 9 times, for each combination of 1/2/3 with s/d/p). <P> A similar refactoring should be done on all those blocks that "do the nasty" with @inlist -- you should be able to reduce all of those blocks down to a single loop as well, and then you only have to fix the misuse of "push" on the one remaining instance of that problem. <P> (updated to fix wording in 1st paragraph) <P> Oh, and instead of this: <c> if ( $file[$i] =~ m/(\\gll|\\ag\.|\\bg\.|\\cg\.|\\dg\.|\\eg\.|\\fg\.|\\exg\.|\\exg)/ ) </c> How about: <c> if ( $file[$i] =~ /(\\(?:gll|[abcdef]g\.|exg\.?))/ ) </c> (updated last snippet to include a much-needed ":" after the first "?") 777633 777633