my @file1 = chomp( ); my @file2 = chomp( ); my $last = (@file1 > @file2) ? $#file1 : $#file2; for my $line (0..$last) { print "$file1[$line] $file2[$line]\n"; } #### { my $line1 = ; my $line2 = ; last unless $line1 or $line2; chomp for $line1, $line2; print "$line1 $line2\n"; redo; }