hi i have raw data that is like this in a flat file .
start name:agnello dob:2 april address:123 street end start name:babit dob:13 april address:3 street end start name:ganesh dob:1 april address:23 street end i need to get the data in the following format name:agnello, dob:23 april ,address:123 street name:babit,dob:13 april,address:3 street name:ganesh,dob:1 april,address:23 street i came up with this , is there a better way to do this : =============================== #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; open my $FH , 'data.txt' or die "cannot open file $!"; read $FH, my $string, -s $FH; close($FH); my @string = split ( /start/ , $string ) ; my %data; foreach ( @string ) { chomp; next if /^$/ ; s/^ $//g; s/end//; my @data = split(/\n/, "$_"); foreach my $i (@data) { print "$i,"; } print "\n"; } -- Regards Agnello D'souza “Happiness is not so much in having , but in sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a Life by what we Give.”