use Tie::File;
use strict;
my (@A, @B, @C); my ($field1, $A, $B);
tie @B, 'Tie::File', 'txtA.txt' or die "couldn't TiE $!\n";
tie @A, 'Tie::File', 'txtB.txt' or die "couldn't TiE $!\n";
foreach $A (@A) {
my ($field1) = split/:/, $A;
print $field1;
foreach $B (@B){
if($B=~/^$field1/){
#found match push it onto C
push @C, $A;}
}
}
## We remove those that didn't match by replacing @A with @C :)
@A = @C;
print @A;
####
filea:file2:file1
file2:something:old
####
fileB:file2:file3
filea:file2:file1
file2:filex:file23
file34:file2:file3
filea:file2:file1
file2:filex:file23