$scafSeq = $ARGV[0]; open (IN, "< $scafSeq"); while ( $line = ) { chomp $line; $line =~ s/^\s+//g; $line =~ s/sequence/count/g; next if $line eq ""; if(substr($line,0,1) eq ">") { ($scaff) = $line =~ /^>(\S+)/; } else { $scaffData -> {$scaff} .= $line; } }