my $in1 = $ARGV[0]; my $in2 = $ARGV[1]; my $fout = $ARGV[2]; #### open ONE, $in1; open TWO, $in2; open foutname, ">$fout"; #### open my $one, '<', $in1 || die "$in1: $!\n"; open my $two, '<', $in2 || die "$in2: $!\n"; open my $foutname, ">", $fout || die "$fout: $!\n"; #### my %first; while (<$one>) { chomp; my @data = split /\t/; $first{$data[0]}=$data[1]; # fill the hash with the values from the first file } close $one; while (<$two>) { chomp; # just search the hash for these strings exists $first{$_} && print $foutname $first{$_},'\n'; } close $two; close $foutname || warn "$fout: $!\n';