#!/usr/bin/perl my $file = shift; open (NAMES, "$file"); @names = ; close NAMES; %title = ('Mr.' => 1,'Mrs.'=>1,'Miss'=>1,'Ms.'=>1,'Dr.'=>1); while ($_ = shift @names) { my $done_with_title; my ($title,$name); chop; while (m/([^ ]+)/g) { if ($title{$1} || $1 eq"and") { warn "title: $1\n"; } else { warn "other: $1\n"; $done_with_title = 1; } unless ($done_with_title) { $title .= "$1 "; } else { $name .= "$1 "; } } warn "$title\t$name\n"; }