use strict; # always use warnings; # always use Set::IntSpan; my $TM_part1 = "25-40,74-93,95-120,130-149"; my $TM_part2 = "31-47,84-99,107-123,137-151"; my @split_TM1 = split ',', $TM_part1; my @split_TM2 = split ',', $TM_part2; my $u_set = join ',', map { my $set1 = Set::IntSpan->new($split_TM1[$_]); my $set2 = Set::IntSpan->new($split_TM2[$_]); intersect $set1 $set2; } 0 .. $#split_TM1; print "Union of strings: $u_set\n";