#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; open (OUT,">outputfile.txt"); open my $fh1, '<', 'file1.txt'; open my $fh2, '<', 'file2.txt'; while( defined( my $line1 = <$fh1> ) and defined( my $line2 = <$fh2> ) ){ chomp $line1; chomp $line2; my $string = $line2; $string =~ m{^*\t}; print $string."\n"; if( $line1 eq $string ){ print OUT $line2."\n"; }else{ print OUT $line1."\n"; } } close $fh1; close $fh2; close OUT;