use File::Copy; # for move() open my $of, '<', $old_file or die "Can't read $old_file: $!"; open my $nf, '>', $new_file or die "Can't write $new_file: $!"; my $line_number = 0; while (my $line = <$of>){ chomp $line; print $nf $line, $list[$line_number]; } close $nf; close $of; move $new_file, $old_file;