I looks like you're about 90% of the way to your solution: you've found the longest and shortest string in each file. Now, what I would do (this is guaranteed to be a less-than-optimal solution) is to a) open the files, using the open function (don't forget to close the files when you're through with them), e.g.,
open(FILE, "<", $this_file) or die "Could not open $this_file because
+$!\n";
and, b) scan through the file to find the shortest and longest lines. Store these into hashes:
$long{$file} = $longest_string_in_this_file;
$short{$file} = $shortest_string_in_the_same_file;
Repeat for each file, and do whatever joining you wish. If you want to join the two longest and the two shortest lines across files, use a hash of hashes instead of a hash for the longest and shortest lines.
This does seem like an odd question, however. It's not homework, is it?
Information about American English usage here and here. Floating point issues? Please read this before posting. — emc
