my @array1 = `cat $ARGV[0]`; my @array2 = 'cat $ARGV[1]'; my $read01 = 0; #$i = 'BIG TREE' my $read01 = 0; foreach my $i (@array1){ for(@array2){ chomp($i); $read01++ if $read01; s/./ . /g; if ($_ =~ /CREATE TABLE TEMP.$i/){ $read01 = 1; } $read01 = 0 if (/^----/) ; next if ($read01 == 1); next unless $read01; print "$_"; } }