#!/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]'"; } }