the corrections i did was: if(defined($variant)){ foreach my $lis(@snplist){ if($queryinfo[2] eq $lis){$flag_left=1;} elsif($queryinfo[3] eq $lis){$flag_right=1;} } if(($flag_left == 1) && ($flag_right == 1)){ print OUT "$_\t$rs\n"; $c++; $flag_left=0;$flag_right=0; } else{ print OUT "$_\t-\n"; } } else{ print OUT "$_\t-\n"; }