my @fields = qw(a b c); my @input = qw( 5.5 3.2 15.0 -22 .02 .15); for ($i=0; $i<=2; $i++) { for ($j=1; $j<=2; $j++) { $${fields[$i]}{$j} = $input[((2*$i)+$j)-1]; } } for ($i=0; $i<=2; $i++) { for ($j=1; $j<=2; $j++) { print $fields[$i] . "{" . $j . "} -> " . $${fields[$i]}{$j}, "\n"; } } printf "%.1f\t%.1f\t%.1f\n", $a{1}, $b{1}, $c{1};