use strict; use DBI; my @left_column = do { open my $fh, "<", 'data/left_file.txt' }; my @right_column = do { open my $fh, "<", 'data/right_file.txt' }; chomp @left_column; chomp @right_column; my $dbh = DBI->connect(...); my $sth = $dbh->prepare(<execute($right_column, $left_column); }; #### my $statement = 'UPDATE wordtable SET right_column = CASE '; $statement .= join "\n", map { "WHEN left_column = '$left_column[_]' THEN '$right_column[$_]'" } 0..$#left_column; $statement .= "END;"; print $statement;