I would like to search the file with both values and return a version of the file missing the numeric field that has the numeric field and the alpha-numeric field.

Please provide samples of the two files and a sample of what you want the final output to look like and the code that you tried but are having trouble with. Then it will be easier for folks here to help you.

Also see How do I post a question effectively?.

I'm very sorry for any confusion. I realize that I probably was not succinct in my posting. An example of the data from the first file would be:

Product # Prod Name Univers ID

A101 something 123

A102 else 456

A103 it 789

A104 the 012

An example of data from the second file would be

Product # Product Name Univers ID

A102 else

A103 it

An example of the file that I want to generate would be:

Product # Product Name Univers ID

A102 else 456

A103 it 789

Does this make more sense? Again, I apologize for not being more clear. I'm an obvious perl novice and am trying to get my head around the language. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds as if you want to use a hash.

Read the both-values-file and construct a hash whose keys are the alpha-numeric field and the values are the numeric field. Process the other file against the hash and write to the result file.

Tricky, huh ? Or have I missed something ?

That's about the sum of it. I just am at a complete loss for what to do.

OK. Well, first use: (a) use strict; (b) use warnings; (c) my variables.

Now, in your input loop you have:

  @t = split(/\t/, $_) ;
  $t[4]= $AB{[4]} ;
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which is a horrible mess :-( What you want to do is:

  $AB{$alpha_numeric_field} = $numeric_field ;
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where the two fields are elements of @t, I cannot tell which.

The output process contains:

  if ($var1[2] and exists $Ab{$var1[2]}) {
    print OUT "$var1[0]\t$var1[1]\t$var1[2]\t$AB[4]\n" ;
  }
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which looks as though it would be OK, but for $AB[4], which ought to be $AB{$var1[2]}. (Oh. And it should be $AB{...} in the if !).

use strict would have picked up the $Ab{} mistake (undefined hash %Ab) and the use of $AB[4] (undefined array @AB). It would not, however, have picked up $AB{[4]}, which is the kind of honest-to-goodness inscrutability that Perl is justly famous for, and which one grows to be deeply fond of.

BTW, rather than:

  @var1 = split(/\t/,$_) ;
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you can write (for example):

  ($field_name, $other_field, $further_field, ...) = split(...) ;
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then you have each field in a variable with a meaningfull name -- more friendly than $var1[2] etc.

I don't mean to be rude, but you've just described the problem. How can you be at a loss as to what to do?

Open file 1
• For each record in file 1
  • break the record into fields
  • update a hash using Product Number and Produce Name as the keys, with a value of Univers ID

Open file 2
• For each record in file 2
  • break the record into fields
  • Is there a hash with Product Number and Produce Name as the keys?
    • If so, write out the keys and the value

this sounds exactly like Matching data between huge files ...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $mode = "start";
my %hash;
while(<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    if ( $_ =~ /file1/) {
        $mode = "read";
        next;
    }
    if ( $_ =~ /file2/) {
        $mode = "add";
        next;
    }
    if ( $mode eq "read" ) {
        $hash{$_} = 0;
    }
    elsif ( $mode eq "add" ) {
        my ( $key, $value ) = split " ", $_, 2;
        $hash{$key} = $value if ( exists($hash{$key}) );
    }
}
for ( sort keys %hash ) {
   print "$_ => $hash{$_} \n" if $hash{$_};
}


__DATA__

file1
Angel
Baker
Candy
Edward
Fox
file2
Angel 7
Fox 10
Gigantic 29
Candy 3
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C:\Code>perl order_by_key.pl
Angel => 7
Candy => 3
Fox => 10
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I'm very sorry. I didn't really know how to state what I was wanting to do clearly enough.