use v5.14; my $dir = "C:\\Users\\Desktop\\collection2"; opendir(DR, $dir) || die "could not open directory: $!\n"; my @docs = grep{/[^\.|..]/} readdir DR; closedir DR; while ( chomp(my $query = <>) ) { foreach my $doc (@docs){ open(DOC,'<',"$dir\\$doc") or die "$!\n"; while(){ chomp; if($query =~ m/$_/i){ print "$query appears in $doc\n"; } } close DOC; } }