I have two files of double quoted values with a key in common, which I merge into a new file with redundant values removed.

dataa.txt
"state","location","name","school"
"Connecticut","New Haven","Jones, Jenny","Yale University"
"Massachusetts","Boston","Jones, James","Harvard University"
"New York","Ithaca","Smith, John","Cornell University"
"New York","New York","Williams, David","Columbia University"

datab.txt
"name","birth","birthplace"
"Jones, James","1954","Springfield"
"Jones, Jenny","1950","Middletown"
"Smith, John","1953","Albany"
"Williams, David","1954","Pittsfield"

resulting in datac.txt

name^state^location^school^birth^birthplace
Jones, Jenny^Connecticut^New Haven^Yale University^1950^Middletown
Jones, James^Massachusetts^Boston^Harvard University^1954^Springfield
Smith, John^New York^Ithaca^Cornell University^1953^Albany
Williams, David^New York^New York^Columbia University^1954^Pittsfield

My code is as follows:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::CSV; 
use Data::Dumper;

my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({
  quote_char          => '"',
  escape_char         => '"',
  sep_char            => ',',
  eol                 => $\,
  always_quote        => 1,
  quote_space         => 1,
  quote_null          => 1,
  binary              => 0,
  keep_meta_info      => 1,
  allow_loose_quotes  => 0,
  allow_loose_escapes => 0,
  allow_whitespace    => 0,
  blank_is_undef      => 0,
  empty_is_undef      => 0,
  verbatim            => 0,
  auto_diag           => 0,
  });
open (OUTPUT,'>datac.txt') or die $!;
my (%hash1); 
my $file1 = 'dataa.txt';
open (CSV1,"<",$file1) or die $!;
while (<CSV1>) {
  if ($csv->parse($_)) {
    my @fields1 = $csv->fields();
    my $key1 = $fields1[2];
    splice(@fields1,2,1);
    my $line1 = join ( '^' , @fields1);
    %hash1 = ($key1 => $line1);
    }
  else {
    my $err = $csv->error_input;
    print "Failed to parse line: $err";
    }
my $file2 = 'datab.txt';
open (CSV2,"<",$file2) or die $!;
while (<CSV2>) {
  if ($csv->parse($_)) {
    my @fields2 = $csv->fields();
    my $key2 = $fields2[0];
    splice(@fields2,0,1);
    my $line2 = join ( '^' , @fields2);
    my $new = ();
      if (exists $hash1{$key2}) {
        my $new = join ('^' , $key2 , $hash1{$key2} , $line2);
        print OUTPUT $new,"\n";
        }
    }
  else {
    my $err = $csv->error_input;
    print "Failed to parse line: $err";
    }
  }
}
close CSV1;
close CSV2;
[download]

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.