#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; while () { next if /^\d{4}\s/; # A million ways to do this, but it depends what the rest of your data looks like print; } __DATA__ 2345 IP NAME.com STATUS IPADDRESS1 2345/1243 IP Name-interface.com STATUS IPADDRESS2 2345/3213 IP NAME-interfce2.com STATUS IPADDRESS1 2345/1212 IP Name-interface3.com STATUS IPADDRESS3 4321 IP CNAME.com STATUS IPADDRESS_1 4321/1643 IP CName-interface.com STATUS IPADDRESS_1 4321/3673 IP CNAME-interfce2.com STATUS IPADDRESS_2