Shell Programming and Scripting

hello everyone,

i am creating 2 hashes from 2 different files, then looking for the value of one in the value of the other to make a new file. for example:

file1: DENV => Denver
file2: H224-0A-12 => DENVER

if Denver is found in DENVER (case insensitive), a new hash now contains H224-0A-12 => DENV.

although this example is straightfowrd, the values can also partially match, for example, Miami into MIAMI/SOUTH FLORIDA.

what i've stated so far is not a problem; in fact, i can get this to work. however, i am trying to use last; within my while loop to break out of it if a state has already been found, that is, if Denver is found in DENVER, don't look for Denver in TAMPA, or CHICAGO, or NEW YORK, and so on...

if i leave out the last statement i get a hash with 111 entries, if i use last i get 73; i cannot figure out why. where am i going wrong? the code is below:

while(my($k,$v)=each(%directories)) {
while(my($k2,$v2)=each(%ids)) {
if($v =~ /$v2/i) {
$final{$k} = $k2;
# this is where last; would be.
}
}
}

thank you.