my @matches; my $FOUND = 0; my %info = {}; while () { chomp $_; if (($_ =~ /^id/) and ($FOUND)) { push @matches \%info; $FOUND = 0; %info = {} } if ($_ =~ /^id/) { (undef, $info{id}) = split / /, $_} if ($_ =~ /^address/) { (undef, $info{address}) = split / /, $_} if ($_ =~ /^name/) { (undef, $info{fname}) = split / /, $_} ... if ($searchPattern eq $info{fname}) { $FOUND = 1; } }