uno = uno due = dos tre = tres quattro = quatro cinque = cinco sei = seis sette = siete otto = ocho nouve = nueve dieci =diez #### uno = un due = deux tre = trois quattro = quatre cinque = cinq sei = six sette = sept dieci = dix #### uno => uno, un due => dos , deux tre => tres , trois quattro => quatro, quatre cinque => cinco , cinq sei => seis, six sette => siete, sept dieci => diez, dix #### use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dump qw(dump); use Storable; #don't know this yet but let's try soon. my %hash; #opening my file handles; adding recommendations with naming extentions open my $in, '<',"./test_data.txt" or die ("can't open the file:$!\n"); open my $in1,'<',"./test_data1.txt" or die ("can't open file : $!\n"); open my $out ,'>' ,"./test_data_out.txt" or die "can't open the file for write:$!\n"; open my $out1 ,'>',"./test_data_out1_no_match.txt" or die "can't open file for write:$!\n"; while (<$in>){ chomp; my ($key, $value)= split (/\s*=\s*/); #greedy matching for better regex coverage as per Ken $hash{$key}=$value; } close $in; while (<$in1>){ chomp; my ($key,$value) = split (/\s*=\s*/); #splits row into 2 col. #checks for keys that EXIST in both then prints...? if (exists $hash{$key}){ print $out "$key => $hash{$key} , $value \n"; } else { print $out1 "$key => $value \n"; } } close $in1; close $out; close $out1;