in reply to comparing ranges of numbers between 2 files

Since you only need to see if it's contained it's simply checking $a1 < $b1 and $a2 > $b2 for each combination of lines from file A and B.

you can use my ($a1, $a2) = split '-', $line to split the ranges.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!