You are right. I am still having a problem. The code does not recognise the values in @record although present in @file. When I try to print the $_ in the hash it's blank. Suggestions are welcome - I think I got overly excited --

my $file='d:\mms_tableload.txt';
my @file=();

open(FILE,$file);
@file = <FILE>;
close(FILE);

my @report = qw(sarak_mike mike);
my %in_file = map{$_ =>1} @file;
my $all_match = 1;

foreach (@report) {

       if (! exists $in_file {$_} ) {
       $all_match = 0;
       print "\@report value: '$_' is not in \@file.\n";
   }
}

print "All values in \@report found in \@file\n" if $all_match;
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