#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $line; open (IN, "temp"); while ($line = ) { process($line); } exit; sub process { my $str=shift; # my $rest; ($a, $b, $rest) = split(/\s+/,$str,3); if (defined($a)){ print OUT "$a\t"; } if (defined($b)){ print OUT "$b\n"; } if (!defined($rest)){ return (0); } process($rest); }