use warnings; use strict; # create some sample data my (@pathnames, @safe_list); push @pathnames, sprintf "C:/abc/abc1/GS%06d", $_ for 1..500_000; push @safe_list, sprintf "GS%06d", $_ for 1..100_000; my %safe_hash; $safe_hash{$_} = 1 for @safe_list; my @list; for (@pathnames) { # (adjust regex to match whatever the filename/ID format is) /\/(\w+)$/ or die "bad pathname: $_"; push @list, $_ unless $safe_hash{$1}; }