#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; sub get_tests{ my @tmp; for (0..(scalar(@_)-3)){ push @tmp, join('',@_[$_,$_+1,$_+2]); } return @tmp; } my $string = join('',('h'..'aq')); print $string,$/; my @tests = &get_tests('a' .. 'r'); my @genders = grep $string =~ /$_/, @tests; print join(' ', @genders),"\n"; exit 0;