That is a lot information, but I fear that I have not explained my problem correctly. I'll try again :). This is some example output: the last list of directories is just a dump of the hash that has all the changes listed incase it makes it easier to view. 

-----------------------------------------------------------
PRIOR RUNTIME WAS Thu Sep 17 16:09:05 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------
###################### THESE DIRECTORIES NO LONGER EXIST 
-----------------------------------------------------------
C:\Temp/2/2
C:\Temp/4
C:\Temp/4/1
C:\Temp/4/2
C:\Temp/5/1
C:\Temp/5/1/1
C:\Temp/5/1/2
C:\Temp/5/1/2/1
C:\Temp/5/1/2/2
-----------------------------------------------------------
##################### THESE DIRECTORIES HAVE BEEN CREATED 
-----------------------------------------------------------
C:\Temp/4-4
C:\Temp/4-4/1
C:\Temp/4-4/1/New
C:\Temp/4-4/2
C:\Temp/5/2/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2/2
C:\Temp/New
-----------------------------------------------------------
############## THESE DIRECTORIES MAY HAVE BEEN RE-NAMED OR MOVED #
-----------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------
############################### HAVE A NICE DAY 
C:\Temp/2/2
C:\Temp/4
C:\Temp/4-4
C:\Temp/4-4/1
C:\Temp/4-4/1/New
C:\Temp/4-4/2
C:\Temp/4/1
C:\Temp/4/2
C:\Temp/5/1
C:\Temp/5/1/1
C:\Temp/5/1/2
C:\Temp/5/1/2/1
C:\Temp/5/1/2/2
C:\Temp/5/2/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2/1
C:\Temp/5/2/1/2/2
C:\Temp/New

[download]

I'm pretty happy with the output except I just need to reduce the multiple listings for sub-directories when a parent directory is changed, moved, deleted or what ever. Do you think it is possible to just trim the results for multiple parents? Thanks so much for your help, I've learnt a lot.

In reply to Re^4: Comparing strings to reduce excess results by grub_
in thread Comparing strings to reduce excess results by grub_

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.