#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my %files = (); while () { if (/(.{4})/) { $files{$1} = 1; } } foreach my $prefix (keys %files) { print "$prefix*\n"; } __DATA__ abcpwbln08 abcpwbln07 abcpwbnn10 abcpwbnn06 adesicln09 adesicln08 adesicln01 adesicnn05