use strict; open OF1, ">var2_equal_to_3.txt"; open OF2, ">var2_not_equal_to_3.txt"; my ($flipflop, $flag, $prev); while () { chomp; $flag = 1 if m/var2\s+=\s+3/i; $flipflop = //i .. /<\/rec\s+[0-9]+>/i; $prev = $_ if $flipflop == 1; if ($flag) { print OF1 "$prev\n" if $flipflop == 2; print OF1 "$_\n"; }else{ print OF2 "$_\n"; } $flag = $prev = undef if $flipflop =~ /E0$/; } close OF1; close OF2;