#!/usr/bin/perl -w sub unwrap { my ($filepath) = @_; my $result = {}; open(X, $filepath) || die "$!"; local $/ = "\n>"; while () { chomp; s/^>//; my @lines = split("\n"); my $sequence_id = shift(@lines); my $sequence = join('', @lines); $result->{$sequence_id} = $sequence; } $result; } $x = unwrap('/net/share/perl_refs/cosmids1.txt'); print $x->{'ZK1307.9'}, "\n"; print $x->{'ZK1248.6'}, "\n"; print $x->{'ZK1236.5'}, "\n";