sub commonLists { my ( $array_ref1, $array_ref2, $elementToMatch ) = @_; my %lookup; push(@{$lookup{$_->[$elementToMatch]}}, $_) foreach @$array_ref1; my @match; foreach my $fromArray2 (@$array_ref2) { my $fromArray1 = $lookup{$fromArray2->[$elementToMatch]}; push(@match, @$fromArray1, $fromArray2) if $fromArray1; } return \@match; }