#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings; @numarray= open (NUMLONG, "<$oldfile") or die "Error opening $oldfile : $!"; @shortarray = open (SHORTLONG, "<$newfile") or die "Error opening $newfile : $!"; sub sessionclean { my $x = 0 foreach $key (@shortarray) if ($key =~ /\:{2}\d+\:{4}/) { } else { # ignore } } }