e.g. my @numbers = ('76.8', '77.0', '77.2' ,'77.4', '77.6', '77.8' , '78.0' , '78.2', '78.4', '78.6' , '78.8', '79.0', '79.2', '79.4', '79.6', '79.8' ,'80.0' , '80.2' , '80.5' ,'80.7' ,'80.9',' '81.1'); my @small = ('78.6' , '78.8', '79.0', '80.9', '77.0');