In message <20011130231418.30177.qmail@web14604.mail.yahoo.com>, "=?iso-8859-1?q?Jonathan=20E.=20Paton?=" writes: : #!/usr/bin/perl -w : : $j++; : : while (<>) { : $line{$.} = $_; : delete $line{$j++} if ($. == 2 * $j); : } : : print $line{$j}; A hash is an associative array and, thus, isn't kosher for the problem as stated. Greg