#!/usr/bin/env perl -l use strict; use warnings; my @test_strings = qw{ abcdefghiaabccdjklm abcdeffghijkllmnoppqestqaserb }; remove_duplicate_chars($_) for @test_strings; sub remove_duplicate_chars { my $str = shift; my %seen; my @chars = grep { ! $seen{$_}++ } split //, $str; my $uniq = join '', grep { $seen{$_} == 1 } @chars; print "IN: $str"; print "OUT: $uniq"; return; } #### IN: abcdefghiaabccdjklm OUT: efghijklm IN: abcdeffghijkllmnoppqestqaserb OUT: cdghijkmnotr