#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; open(FILE2,">file1.txt")|| die "Could not open: $!\n"; open(FILE3,"file2.txt")|| die "Could not open: $!\n"; my @data = ; close(FILE3); my %hash; foreach my $_data (@data) { my $computer_name = (split(/\t/, $_data))[0]; if (! exists($hash{$computer_name})) { $hash{$computer_name} = undef; print FILE2 $_data; } } close(FILE2);