my $lastrec = scalar( @{$file1data[0]}) - 1; my @scores = map { my $d1 = $_; # arrayref of a record from file11 [ map { # an arrayref with score for each record from file2 my $d2 = $_; # arrayref of a record from file12 scalar grep { # count stringy matches $d1->[$_] eq $d2->[$_]; } 0..$lastrec; } @file2data ]; } @file1data;