while(){ chomp; ($index,@record)=split/[:,]/; push @{$records{$index}},@record; } #### for $index (sort{$a<=>$b}(keys (%records))){ print $OUTFILE "$index: ",join(",",(sort{$a<=>$b}(@{$records{$index}}))),"\n"; } #### #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @files=qw(temp.data temp1.data temp2.data); my ($file,$index, %records,$INFILE,$OUTFILE); for $file (@files){ open($INFILE,"<","$file")|| die "Failed to open $file: $!"; while(<$INFILE>){ my @record; chomp; ($index,@record)=split/[:,]/; push @{$records{$index}},@record; } close $INFILE; } open ($OUTFILE,">","newfile.data")|| die "Failed to open newfile.data: $!"; for $index (sort{$a<=>$b}(keys (%records))){ print $OUTFILE "$index: ",join(",",(sort{$a<=>$b}(@{$records{$index}}))),"\n"; } close $OUTFILE