Just wondering if there is a preferred logical approach to matching 'lists' to other 'lists'?

Yes. Put one of the lists in a hash.

In your case, if you make a hash of your fixed strings:

my %lookup = ( string1=>34, string2=>10, string3=>52, string4=>104, st
+ring5=>7 );
[download]

Then your code becomes a simple process of splitting your complex strings and doing lookups:

my @bits = split ':', 'string2:string4:totalName';
my $name = pop @bits;
my $total = 0;
for my $bit ( @bits ) {
    $total += $lookup{ $bit };
}
print OUTFILE "$name,$total";
[download]