my @sets = ([ 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, ], [ 0, 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, ], [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, ], [ 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, ], [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, ]); foreach $la (@sets) { %c= map { $_, $c{$_} += 1; } @$la; } foreach $la (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %c) { print "$la is in all sets.\n" if $c{$la} > $#sets; }