It appears that the "key" is the entire line of file1. If so, then this is a pretty easy task.

Here is an example:

use Modern::Perl; my %keys; open my $file1, '<', 'filename1.txt' or die "Can't open file 1: $!"; open my $file2, '<', 'filename2.txt' or die "Can't open file 2: $!"; #read in the first file. while (<$file1>) { chomp; #remove newline. $keys{$_}++; #Add the key to your hash } #find keys in the second file. while (<$file2>) { foreach my $key (keys %keys) { say "$key matches" if /\b\Q$key\E\b/; } }

Regex Notes: \b matches a word boundary. This is because you presumably wouldn't want "John Smith" to match "John Smithfield". \Q...\E is the quote literal modifier. If your key contains characters with a special meaning in regexes (such as the dot in "Mr. Smith") you want to match only the literal characters.

Yes, you do end up needing a nested loop...that is intrinsic to the nature of your task.



When's the last time you used duct tape on a duct? --Larry Wall

In reply to Re: comparing two sets of data by ColonelPanic
in thread comparing two sets of data by mimiandi

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