If you want to locate a string quickly from a list of strings, use a hash. 
# Assumes each cat1 appears only once in file2.

my %cat2_by_cat1;

while (<$fh2>) {
   chomp;
   my ($cat1, $cat2) = split /=/;
   $cat2_by_cat1{$cat1} = $cat2;
}

while (<$fh1>) {
   chomp;
   my ($dog, $bird, $cat1) = split /=/;

   exists( $cat2_by_cat1{$cat1} )
      or die;

   my $cat2 = $cat2_by_cat1{$cat1};

   print $fh_out (join('=', $dog, $bird, $cat1, $cat2), "\n");
}

[download]

In reply to Re: Help needed please: Data Manipulation in 2D Array by ikegami
in thread Help needed please: Data Manipulation in 2D Array by Syntenty

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • 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! —
  • 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:
    & &amp;
    < &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.