why not try a regexp?
@files = qw(model4run1 model2run1 model4run2 model);

$reg = ' \\1[^ ]*' x $#files;

"@files" =~ /^([^ ]*)[^ ]*$reg$/;

print $1;

[download]

Of course, all the usual catches apply, like having spaces, return characters, etc. in your filenames.

No idea how slow this is..

Jasper

In reply to Re: Find common prefix from a list of strings by Jasper
in thread Find common prefix from a list of strings by Albannach

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