c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dump qw(dd); ;; my @array = []; dd \@array; ;; $array[2][3] = 1; $array[3][4] = 2; $array[2][6] = 10; ;; dd \@array; " [[]] [ [], undef, [undef, undef, undef, 1, undef, undef, 10], [undef, undef, undef, undef, 2], ]