#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; my $hits=0; my $string_to_find="string"; my $file = "filename"; open (LOGFILE, $file); my @cont = ; close(LOGFILE); for(my $i = 0; $i <= $#cont; $i++) { my $line = $cont[$i]; if ($line =~ /$string_to_find/i) { my $st; ($i <= 5) ? ($st = 0) : ($st = $i - 5); my $ln = $i - 1; my $eln = $i + 1; my $en = $i + 5; ($en > $#cont) ? ($en = $#cont) : (); print @cont[$st..$ln]; print $line; print @cont[$eln..$en]; } }