use strict; use warnings; my @array = qw( 0 0 7 abc 0 ); for my $i ([0, 1, 4], [0, 1, 3, 4], [1], [], [2]) { print "(@array[ @$i ]): "; if (grep !/^0$/, @array[ @$i ]) # !/^0$/ would be better as $_ ne '0' { print "not all are zero\n"; } else { print "all are zero\n"; } } #### 1:40 >perl 1692_SoPW.pl (0 0 0): all are zero (0 0 abc 0): not all are zero (0): all are zero (): all are zero (7): not all are zero 1:40 >