my %fruit; open my $fh, "<", "fruit.csv") or die; while (<$fh>) { chomp; # THIS IS IMPORTANT HERE my ($fruit_name, $number) = split m/,/ => $_; $fruit{$fruit_name} = $number; # puts key-value pair (apples 5) into the hash } close ($fh); open my $fn, "<", "fruit_names.csv" or die; while (<$fn>) { chomp; # DO NOT FORGET my ($thefruitsname) = split m/,/ => $_; my $thenumber = $fruit{$thefruitsname} or die; ... }