my $section = [ [ "image1.gif" , "mark('a' ,1)" ], [ "image2.gif" , "mark('a' ,2)" ], ]; my $parsed = '[ ' . join( ' , ', map { '[ "' . join('" , "', @$_) . '" ]' } @$section ) . ' ]'; #### [ [ "image1.gif" , "mark('a' ,1)" ] , [ "image2.gif" , "mark('a' ,2)" ] ] #### use JSON; my $json = JSON->new; my $section = [ [ "image1.gif" , "mark('a' ,1)" ], [ "image2.gif" , "mark('a' ,2)" ], ]; my $parsed = $json->objToJson( $section );