#!/usr/bin/env perl -l use strict; use warnings; my @array = qw{! 1 A @ 2 b $ 3 c % 4 D ^ 5 e}; for my $i (0 .. $#array) { if ($array[$i] =~ /[a-zA-Z]/ || $i < 10) { print "[$i] Quote: '$array[$i]'"; } else { print "[$i] Don't quote: '$array[$i]'"; } } #### [0] Quote: '!' [1] Quote: '1' [2] Quote: 'A' [3] Quote: '@' [4] Quote: '2' [5] Quote: 'b' [6] Quote: '$' [7] Quote: '3' [8] Quote: 'c' [9] Quote: '%' [10] Don't quote: '4' [11] Quote: 'D' [12] Don't quote: '^' [13] Don't quote: '5' [14] Quote: 'e'