my %elements; # open left file while (<$left>) { chomp; # extract key my $key = $_; $elements{ $key } ||= []; push @{$elements{ $key }}, $_; }; # open right file while (<$right>) { chomp; # extract key my $key = $_; if (! exists $elements{ $key }) { print "Missing totally from left file: $_\n"; } else { my $match = shift @{$elements{ $key }}; print "Matched: $_ against $match\n"; if (0 == @{$elements{ $key }}) { delete $elements{ $key }; }; }; }; for (keys %elements) { print "Only in left file: @{ $elements{ $_ }}" };