my (%num, %alpha); while ( ) { chomp; my ( $head, $tail) = /^(.+?)(\d+|[[:alpha:]])$/; if ( $tail =~ /^\d+$/ ) { $num{ $head}->{ $tail} = $_; } else { $alpha{ $head}->{ ord $tail} = $_; } } my @pairs = ( map( extract_pairs( $_) => values %num), map( extract_pairs( $_) => values %alpha), ); print "$_\n" for @pairs; exit; sub extract_pairs { my $h = shift; my @pairs; for ( keys %$h ) { for my $partner ( $_ - 1, $_ + 1 ) { if ( exists $h->{ $partner} ) { push @pairs, "$h->{ $_};$h->{ $partner}"; delete @$h{ $_, $partner}; } } } @pairs; } __DATA__ AAA30 BBC5 SHT12H DAL33B BBC49 AAA31 DAL33A BBC6 SHT12G BBC50