Sound like you'd be better off using a hash table

#!/usr/bin/perl
%a_hash    = ( "file1", "tom", "file2", "bob", "file3", "joe");  

$vale_from_hash = $a_hash{"file2"}; # Should return "bob"  

$a_hash{"file2"} = "Sam"; # file2 should now be "Sam"  

$vale_from_hash = $a_hash{"file2"}; # Should now return "Sam"  

print( %a_hash ); # Pairs will be matched but usually out of order you
+ expect
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