Sounds like you want to do a binary combine. If this is the case try using "xor, or, and" operators. Like this

my $a = 10101010
my $b = 10000000

my $XorComb = $a xor $b
my $orComb = $a or $b
my $AndComb = $a and $b
[download]

I have never done this with perl (only in Assembly & C) I think you may have to either declare the varibles as binary or make do the compares in binary.

--BigJoe

Update use the operators ar0n said "For binary operations use &, | and ^." instead."