my $word1; { open( FILE, "< $filename1" ) or die( "can't find file1: $!" ); my $file = ; ( $word1 ) = $file =~ /EditorName\b.+\b(\s*)/; close FILE; } my $word2; { open( FILE, "< $filename1" ) or die( "can't find file2: $!" ); my $file = ; ( $word2 ) = $file =~ /EditorCommand\b.+\b(\s*)/; close FILE; } print $word1, $word2;