#!/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @records = ( ['value1', 'value2'], ['value3', 'value4'], ['value5', 'value6']); my @broken = ('( ?, ? )' x @records); print 'broken: ', Dumper \@broken; my @fixed = ('( ?, ? )') x @records; print 'fixed: ', Dumper \@fixed; __DATA__ broken: $VAR1 = [ '( ?, ? )( ?, ? )( ?, ? )' ]; fixed: $VAR1 = [ '( ?, ? )', '( ?, ? )', '( ?, ? )' ]; #### my $values = join ", ", ("( ?, ? )") x @records;