Thank you all for your advice! i've taken it aboard and it works great! I have one last question though, the value that could match the $text11 of file A can be found in several other columns such as 12,13,14,15 How can I adjust the original hash: <code>$bHash{$text[0]} = $text11; so that it includes text 12....15?<\code> is it possible to implement that? if so how? Thank you ! :) This doesnt work: $bHash{$text[0]} = $text11|$text12|$text13;