I won't repeat fletch's comments; just second them.

I've got some questions (yes, this is a quiz)

1. The files differ (you've said they're not the same size); so when you say "Compare," what do you mean? I can guess that you're looking to see if address information is consistent between two files, but no more than that.
2. Have you considered one of the modules, such as Algorithm::Diff, which computes an "intelligent difference between two files?"

On a more minor note: you probably want and vs the & (bitwise and) operator in your if test and you probably want to use ne, which is the string comparison operator, vs !=, which is for numeric comparisons. You've used strict, but never declared your variables, which will keep your code from compiling.

My suggestions are:

• Add some explanation of what you're trying to do.
• Give us some data (it has to be properly formatted and sensible, i.e., validly formatted, albeit not necessarily real addresses.
• Give us a working code sample, i.e., one that will at least compile.
• Show us what you want and what you're actually getting for a test case.

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added in update

I know fletch mentioned the &, use strict; without corresponding variable declarations, and the need for the OP to post samples and (at least syntactically valid) source code. I got into my pedantic mode, and ended up repeated fletch's advice.

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