#! /usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; # read magically from given files or STDIN; see perldoc perlop (null filehandle) while ( my $line = <> ) { # split each line my @elements = split /\s+/, $line; # two words per line (and words are equal) if ( 2 == @elements && $elements[0] eq $elements[1] ) { print $line; } } # just for testing __DATA__ file ass ass array rat rasa arrow ant sad