#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings; my $string1="abcdef"; my $string2="defghi"; my @ary=split(//,$string1); push @ary,split(//,$string2); my %een=(); map{ $een{$_}++ } @ary; my @unique=(); foreach (@ary){ next unless $een{$_} == 1; push @unique,$_; } printf "%s\n",join(",",@unique);