#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my $str1 = < $index++} split /\s+/, <$fIn>; my @file1Data; push @file1Data, [split /\s+/] while <$fIn>; close $fIn; my @wantedCols = ('col1', 'col3', 'file1 col3'); open $fIn, '<', \$str2; $index = @{$file1Data[0]}; $fileCols{$_} = $index++ for split /\s+/, <$fIn>; my @slice = map{exists $fileCols{$_} ? $fileCols{$_} : ()} @wantedCols; print join(' ', map{(split /\s+/)[-1]} @wantedCols), "\n"; while (<$fIn>) { chomp; print join (' ', (@{$file1Data[$. - 2]}, split /\s+/)[@slice]), "\n"; } #### col1 col3 col3 1 77 7 2 88 8 3 99 9