my @Station = qw(); my @Code = qw(); open(TEXT,"; close(TEXT); foreach my $line (@SCAL) { my @dataA = split(',', $line); push (@Code, $dataA[1]."\n"); push (@Station, $dataA[0]."\n"); } open(FILE,"; close (FILE); foreach my $lineB(@FVCO) { my @dataB = split(',', $lineB); if ( $dataB[0] == $Station[0 .. 5]) { #match correct column for salinity and salinity based off the value for "code" } }