I hope this code is of help...
A multi-dimensional array is built by making arrays of references to array. You don't get to the actual data until the last dimension.
Here I explicitly build a 2D structure, what is called an AoA (Array of Array).

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump qw(pp);

my @row1 = qw(a b c);
my @row2 = qw(d e f);

my @AoA = (\@row1, \@row2);

pp \@AoA;
# [["a", "b", "c"], ["d", "e", "f"]]


foreach my $my_row_ref (@AoA)
{
    print "@$my_row_ref \n";
}

#a b c 
#d e f 

print "$AoA[1][1]\n";  #prints "e"

#print column1...

foreach my $my_row_ref (@AoA)
{
    print "$my_row_ref->[1] \n";
}

#b 
#e
[download]

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.