use strict; use warnings; my %required; open(IN,"<","text2.txt") or die; while(){ chomp; $required{$_}++ } close IN; open(IN,"<","text1.txt") or die; while(){ if (/\S+\s+(\S+)/ && !exists $required{$1}) { print "$1 doesnot match in text1.txt. Please help me.\n" } } close IN;