$ cat spw582186 #!/usr/bin/perl # use strict; use warnings; my @l1 = qw(Date IndexID Maturity OnTheRun CompositePrice CompositeSpread ModelPrice ModelSpread Depth Heat); my @l2 = qw(OnTheRun CompositePrice CompositeSpread Depth); my @l3; { local $" = q{|}; @l3 = map {m{^@l2$} ? $_ : q{null}} @l1; } print qq{$_\n} for @l3; $ ./spw582186 null null null OnTheRun CompositePrice CompositeSpread null null Depth null $ uname -a SunOS b4rsk 5.10 Generic_118833-03 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-60 $ perl -v This is perl, v5.8.4 built for sun4-solaris-64int (with 28 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail) Copyright 1987-2004, Larry Wall Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License or the GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source kit. Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found on this system using `man perl' or `perldoc perl'. If you have access to the Internet, point your browser at http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page. $