#! /usr/bin/perl -w use strict ; my $lineno = 0 ; while (my $line=) { chomp $line ; ++$lineno ; printf STDOUT "%2d -> ", $lineno ; # add the print if's here print 'A' if $line =~ /CSCI/ ; print 'B' if $line =~ /^C*S*C*I*$/ ; # stop adding print if's print STDOUT "\n" ; }