That code will in fact only cat the first line of file x and the first line of file y.

I wouldn't even use perl for this, but if you must: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my ($string1, $string2);

# read files in chunks instead of lines
# remove if you realy want to read textfiles
# line by line
local $/ = \32768; # "block size"

open (FILE1, "< x") || die "Cannot open file : $!";
open (FILE2, "< y") || die "Cannot open file : $!";
open (FILE3, "> z") || die "Cannot open file : $!";

# set binmode, so binary files don't get messed
# up on systems with text/binary mode files
# (like windows or MS-DOS)
binmode (FILE1);
binmode (FILE2);
binmode (FILE3);

print FILE3 <FILE1>,<FILE2> or die "Error concatenating: $!";

close FILE1 or die "Error closing x: $!";
close FILE2 or die "Error closing y: $!";
close FILE3 or die "Error closing z: $!";

[download]

update: fixed copy/paste error

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re: Answer: How do I join two files? by Joost
in thread How do I join two files side by side? by esther

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