#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $name1="chrom1 unique"; my @c1_uniq_cog_ids = qw(1 2 3 4 5); print "NAME1 $name1\n"; cog_class(\@c1_uniq_cog_ids, $name1); sub cog_class { my $c1_uniq_cog_ids = shift; my $name = shift; print "NAME $name\n"; for my $id ( @{$cog_ids_ref} ){ # BLAH BLAH } }