i may have to sleep on this one... haha. ...

Cheers

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Slurp;
use Data::Dump qw/ dd /;


my @dev_flash000 = (); my @dev_flash001 = ();
my @dev_flash002 = (); my @dev_flash003 = ();
my @dev_flash004 = (); my @dev_flash005 = ();
my @dev_flash006 = (); my @dev_flash007 = ();
my @dev_flash008 = (); my @dev_flash009 = ();
my @dev_flash010 = (); my @dev_flash011 = ();
my @dev_flash012 = (); my @dev_flash013 = ();
my @dev_flash014 = (); my @dev_flash015 = ();
my @dev_flash016 = (); my @dev_flash017 = ();
my @dev_flash018 = (); my @dev_flash019 = ();
my @dev_flash020 = (); my @dev_flash021 = ();
my @dev_flash022 = (); my @dev_flash023 = ();
my @dev_flash024 = (); my @dev_flash025 = ();
my @dev_flash026 = (); my @dev_flash027 = ();


my %damndevs = (
    dev_flash000 => \@dev_flash000, dev_flash001 => \@dev_flash001,
    dev_flash002 => \@dev_flash002, dev_flash003 => \@dev_flash003,
    dev_flash004 => \@dev_flash004, dev_flash005 => \@dev_flash005,
    dev_flash006 => \@dev_flash006, dev_flash007 => \@dev_flash007,
    dev_flash008 => \@dev_flash008, dev_flash009 => \@dev_flash009,
    dev_flash010 => \@dev_flash010, dev_flash011 => \@dev_flash011,
    dev_flash012 => \@dev_flash012, dev_flash013 => \@dev_flash013,
    dev_flash014 => \@dev_flash014, dev_flash015 => \@dev_flash015,
    dev_flash016 => \@dev_flash016, dev_flash017 => \@dev_flash017,
    dev_flash018 => \@dev_flash018, dev_flash019 => \@dev_flash019,
    dev_flash020 => \@dev_flash020, dev_flash021 => \@dev_flash021,
    dev_flash022 => \@dev_flash022, dev_flash023 => \@dev_flash023,
    dev_flash024 => \@dev_flash024, dev_flash025 => \@dev_flash025,
    dev_flash026 => \@dev_flash026, dev_flash027 => \@dev_flash027,
);






extract_files('nowhere','nohow'); ## my test that my version works
sub extract_files {
#~     my @devflash = ( map { 'temp/dev_flash'.$_ } '000'..'027' );
    my @devflash = (
        'temp/dev_flash000', 'temp/dev_flash001',
        'temp/dev_flash002', 'temp/dev_flash003',
        'temp/dev_flash004', 'temp/dev_flash005',
        'temp/dev_flash006', 'temp/dev_flash007',
        'temp/dev_flash008', 'temp/dev_flash009',
        'temp/dev_flash010', 'temp/dev_flash011',
        'temp/dev_flash012', 'temp/dev_flash013',
        'temp/dev_flash014', 'temp/dev_flash015',
        'temp/dev_flash016', 'temp/dev_flash017',
        'temp/dev_flash018', 'temp/dev_flash019',
        'temp/dev_flash020', 'temp/dev_flash021',
        'temp/dev_flash022', 'temp/dev_flash023',
        'temp/dev_flash024', 'temp/dev_flash025',
        'temp/dev_flash026', 'temp/dev_flash027',
    );
    
    my $des = '';
    my ( $dir, $file ) = @_;

    for my $devfile ( @devflash ) {
#~         my( $devdigit ) = $devfile =~ m{/(dev[^/]+)$};
#~         my $devdigit = path( $devfile )->basename;
#~         my( $devdigit ) = $devfile =~ m{/(dev_flash\d+)$}s;
        my( $devdigit ) = $devfile =~ m{/([^/]+)$};
        my $devarray    = $damndevs{$devdigit}
          || die "fail to find $devdigit in damndevs IMPOSSIBLE! ";

#~         dd( $devdigit , $devarray ); ## worked
        my $contents    = read_file( $devfile );
        
        if( $contents =~ /\b$file\b/i ) {
            if( -e "copied_files/$devdigit/$file" ) {
                push @$devarray, "$file\n";
                my $des = "copied_files/$devdigit/duplicate/";
                copy( "$dir/$file", $des ) or die "$!";
            } else {
                push @$devarray, "$file\n";
                my $des = "copied_files/$devdigit/";
                copy( "$dir/$file", $des ) or die "$!";
            }
        } ## end if( $contents =~ /\b$file\b/i)
    }

} ## end sub extract_files
[download]

WOW GREAT!!! :p
but seriously, thanks for taking the time. the example you given me makes clear sense and this is how i wanted to set it up to work intitially but didnt think it could be done lol, for some reason i had it in my head there was no way to match up the directory of the scanned $file after it had been compared, i dunno what i was thinking tbh <.<. but yoru example does help me understand better other ways to parse data. i cant wait to get done with my flash tool i am working on and see how good you all school me on that haha. will be quite interesting hehe.
oh also i wasnt asking for anyone to make my code shorter :) i was just wanting some examples of how any monk or any other person would have done it differently. and this being an example with actual data i am using, it makes it easier for me to understand any examples posted. i DID however know that when monks stared posting examples of how they would have done it, it would be alot shorter code than the script i posted :)

thanks for taking your time with me, it will pay off for me in the end.i am wanting to learn and am learning, and with a few helpful hands from yall, i will be flinging files and code everywhere muhahaha!!!

well i found a better way than ever i think :) please digest this code:

use warnings; 
use strict;   
use diagnostics; 

open (my $file, '<', $ARGV[0]) || die "lifes great when your a noob pr
+ogrammer :) $!"

my @array;

foreach my $line (<$file>) {
    push( @array, $line );
}

foreach my $element (@array) {
    if ( $element =~ "Path" ) {
        print "\n$element";
    }
    elsif ( $element =~ "KB" || $element =~ "MB" ) {
        my ( $md5, $blank, $file, $filesize, $bits ) = split /\s/, $el
+ement;
        print "$md5 $blank $file  $filesize $bits\n";
    }
}
[download]

this eliminates all arrays except for the one, amd it should only be slightly trivial to setup the extraction process from this since i got full path, filename, md5, filesize, blank spaces, KB or MB. to bad i didnt think of this 3 or 4 days ago <.< cz i dont think its gonna get to much lazier than this lol. everything i need is right in that text file :) here is the new file and the other files are somewhere else in this thread;