I'm still learning too :-)

Here's some code to

  1. loop through file 2 lines, and create a hash for
     each line where the key is the company name, and
     the value is the whole pipe delimited record.
  2. loop through file 1 lines - for each file 1 line,
     check for a match in the file 2 hash.


   #!/usr/bin/perl -w
   use strict;
   my ($company, $url, $directory);
   ### 1. loop through file 2, building a hash where the
   ###      key   = company name
   ###      value = whole pipe delimited record
   my $file2="/path/to/company_file2.dat";
   open(FILE2, "<$file2") || die "Can't open $file2: $!";
   my %file2_hash = ();
   while (<FILE2>) {
      my $line = chomp($_);
      ($company, $url, $dir) = split(/\|/, $line);
      ### This next statement creates entries in hash
      ### %file2_hash.
      ###   - the key in that hash is $company
      ###   - the value in that hash is a *reference*
      ###     to an anonymous hash - the curly braces on the 
      ###     right of the equals sign create a reference
      ###     to an anonymous hash.  The hash that the
      ###     reference points to has 2 keys - one key is
      ###     "url", and the other key is "dir".
      $file2_hash{$company} = { "url" => $url,
                                "dir" => $dir };
   } ### end while (<FILE2>)
   close(FILE2);

   ### 2. loop through file 1, and for each line in file 1,
   ###    see if there's a matching key(company name) in
   ###    the file2 hash
   my $file1="/path/to/company_file.dat";
   open(FILE1, "<$file1") || die "Can't open $file1: $!";
   print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
   print "Company Listings:<BR>";
   while (<FILE1>) {
      my $line = chomp($_);
      ($file1_company, $file1_url, $file1_dir) = split(/\|/, $line);
      print "$file1_company, $file1_url, $file1_dir<BR>\n";
      if (exists($file2_hash{$company}) {
         ### found a match ###
         print qq!$file1_company, $file2_hash{$company}{"url"}, $file2
+_hash{$company}{"dir"}<BR>!;
      }
   } ### end while (<FILE1>)
   close(FILE1);
[download]

Careful, as this code is completely untested - but hopefully it would work without major changes.

HTH.

---

---

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.