#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my @x = ( ['aaaaa', 'bbbbb', 'ccccc', 'ddddd',], ['eeeee', 'fffff', 'ggggg', 'hhhhh',], ['iiiii', 'jjjjj', 'kkkkk', 'lllll',], ); #@x is a 2D array, an AoA (Array of Array) OUTER: for my $row_ref (@x) { for my $element (@$row_ref) { # call exit(1) to competely stop! # with error code 1 if ($element eq 'ggggg') { print "stop seen\n"; next OUTER; #last; would work here } else { print "$element\n"; } } } __END__ Prints: aaaaa bbbbb ccccc ddddd eeeee fffff stop seen iiiii jjjjj kkkkk lllll