%hash = ( "view0" => [qw/buffersize size value speed/], "view1" => [qw/buffersize size value speed/], "view2" => [qw/buffersize size value speed/], "view3" => [qw/buffersize size value speed/]); my $lastview; my $output; foreach $key (sort(keys %hash)){ # Do this only the first time. if(not defined($lastview)){ $lastview = $key; $output = "$key"; next; } $output .= " full outer join $key on "; my $i; $array_elements_used = scalar(@{ $hash{$key} })-1; #loop through all of the elements except for the last for($i=0;$i<$array_elements_used;$i++){ $output .= "$lastview.$hash{$lastview}[$i] = $key.$hash{$key}[$i]"; # only add an "and" if this is not the last element used. $output .= " and " if ($i != ($array_elements_used-1)); } $lastview = $key; } print $output, "\n"; ============= output: view0 full outer join view1 on view0.buffersize = view1.buffersize and view0.size = view1.size and view0.value = view1.value full outer join view2 on view1.buffersize = view2.buffersize and view1.size = view2.size and view1.value = view2.value full outer join view3 on view2.buffersize = view3.buffersize and view2.size = view3.size and view2.value = view3.value