In that case, what you probably want is a hash of arrays, rather than an array of hashes. You want a hash keyed on the unique IDs in your first file, and values consisting of 4-element arrays. Then you can loop through your hash a second time and print out all key/value pairs that have something other than zero in one of their value elements.

Give that a shot, and if you have trouble, post the code so we can help with it. Pseudo-code would look something like this: 

instantiate a hash
open file of unique keys
while read a line
  get the key from it
  make it a key in your hash, with its value being a reference to an a
+rray containing four zeros

for N = 1 to 4
  open file1
    while read a line
      split the key and value out of it
        if the key exists in your hash
          assign the value to your hash as the Nth element of an array
+ referred to by this key
        if the key doesn't exist
          skip it or error, depending on your design

for each key in the hash
  if any of its array's elements are non-zero
      print the key and array elements joined by tabs

[download]

Aaron B.
My Woefully Neglected Blog, where I occasionally mention Perl.

In reply to Re^2: How to make a array of hashes and search them by aaron_baugher
in thread How to make a array of hashes and search them by Anonymous Monk

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