use List::Util qw( max ); my $max_spam_len = max map length, 'Spam:', @spam; my $format = "%-${max_spam_len}s %s\n"; printf($format, 'Spam:', 'Ham:'); my $max_idx = max $#spam, $#ham; for my $i (0..$max_idx) { printf($format, $i <= $#spam ? $spam[$i] : '', $i <= $#ham ? $ham[$i] : '', ); }