The following achieves what you want with just one pass over file1.txt and two passes over file2.txt.

#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use autodie; my ($ref_file, $data_file) = qw{pm_1146340_file1.txt pm_1146340_file2. +txt}; my (%ref_left, %ref_right, @output); open my $ref_fh, '<', $ref_file; while (<$ref_fh>) { chomp; undef $ref_left{$_}; } close $ref_fh; open my $data_fh, '<', $data_file; while (<$data_fh>) { my ($left, $right) = split ' ', $_, 2; next unless exists $ref_left{$left} and not defined $ref_left{$lef +t}; ++$ref_left{$left}; ++$ref_right{$right}; } seek $data_fh, 0, 0; while (<$data_fh>) { my ($left, $right) = split ' ', $_, 2; next unless $ref_right{$right}; push @output, $_; } close $data_fh; print for @output;

Output:

123 string 1 111 string 1 222 string 1 333 string 1 456 string 2 444 string 2 555 string 2 666 string 2 789 string 3 777 string 3 888 string 3 999 string 3

If the data in file2.txt is always ordered as shown, i.e. references to file1.txt data always appear first, such as

123 string 1 111 string 1

and never as

111 string 1 123 string 1

you'll only need one pass over file2.txt.

To more fully test your code, I'd completely jumble up file2.txt and then add additional records, such as

123 string 4 111 string 4

The output should be the same with no instances of "string 4" appearing at all.

Update: I took my own advice (re "To more fully test your code, ...") and found a problem. I have fixed this by making changes to the first and second while loops. The original code is in the spoiler below.

— Ken


In reply to Re^3: Getting data from second file, based on first files contents; by kcott
in thread UPDATED - Getting data from second file, based on first files contents; by james28909

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