0 0.0175 0 0.0483 0.0471 0 0.0507 0.0483 0.0287 0 #### #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @array = qw( -- 0.0175 0.0483 0.0507 -- 0.0471 0.0483 -- 0.0287 --); my @twod_array; my $i_col = -1; my $i_row; foreach my $ele (@array) { if ($ele eq '--') { $i_col++; #new column starts $i_row = $i_col; next; } $twod_array[$i_row++][$i_col] = $ele; } foreach my $row_ref (@twod_array) { print join ("\t",@$row_ref),"\n"; } __END__ 0.0175 0.0483 0.0471 0.0507 0.0483 0.0287