$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -e ' use autodie; use Tie::File; my $re = qr{^((\d+).+$)}s; my %data_for_part; open my $f1, "<", "pm_1045452_file1.txt"; while (<$f1>) { /$re/; $data_for_part{$2} = $1; } close $f1; tie my @file2, "Tie::File", "pm_1045452_file2.txt"; print $data_for_part{$_} for @file2; untie @file2; ' 3478749:AA:1D:AAA:DescriptionsY:C:2 3633731:AA:3E:AAA:DescriptionsZ:C:2