#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; sub alternate { my ($id, $string, @changes) = @_; unless (@changes) { print "$id $string\n"; return } # The variant with the original character. my ($bracket, $char) = @{ shift @changes }; alternate($id, $string, @changes); # The variant with the alternative character. $string =~ /\(/g for 1 .. $bracket; # Find the bracket. substr $string, pos $string, 1, $char; alternate($id, $string, @changes); } open my $STRINGS, '<', 'File1' or die $!; open my $ALTS, '<', 'File2' or die $!; while (my $string_line = <$STRINGS>) { my ($string_id, $string) = split ' ', $string_line; # Count the bracketed parts. my $count = ((my $bare_string = $string) =~ s/[()]//g) / 2; my @changes; for my $bracket (1 .. $count) { my $alt_line = <$ALTS>; my ($alt_id, $pos, $orig, $alt) = split ' ', $alt_line; die "Out of sync: $string_id != $alt_id\n" if $string_id ne $alt_id; my $char = substr $bare_string, $pos - 1, 1; die "Invalid char at pos $pos in $string_id: $orig != $char\n" if $orig ne $char; push @changes, [ $bracket, $alt ]; } alternate($string_id, $string, @changes); }