http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=721691

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

HI, I have a tab separated file which may run upto 5000 lines. The file format is some thing like this:
XXXXXS331632 XXXXXS331632 female 40087 a5 XXXXXS331632 XXXXXS331632 female 47735 a5 XXXXXS331681 XXXXXS331681 male 40087 e6 XXXXXS331681 XXXXXS331681 male 47735 e6 XXXXXS331856 XXXXXS331856 male 40177 d1 XXXXXS331856 XXXXXS331856 male 47737 d1
What I really want to do is delete the row that appears twice irrespective of the difference(40087 , 47735) in the 4th column. I could remove either the first or the the second entry. At the end what I like to have is a file with the duplicate(?) entry removed.
Something like this:
XXXXXS331632 XXXXXS331632 female 40087 a5 XXXXXS331681 XXXXXS331681 male 40087 e6 XXXXXS331856 XXXXXS331856 male 40177 d1
Any suggestions please
Thanks for your time.