my $file1 = "C:\\temp\\file1.txt"; my $file2 = "C:\\temp\\file2.bat"; my $file3 = "C:\\temp\\file3.txt"; open (FILE1,"$file1"); open (FILE2,"$file2"); open (FILE3,">$file3"); my @file1 = ; my @file2 = ; close (FILE1); close (FILE2); chomp @file1; foreach (@file2) { foreach my $search_string (@file1) { s/$search_string/"******"/g; } print FILE3; } close (FILE3);