use strict; use warnings; my @elems = ("x", "y", "z"); my @tobepopulated = ("foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo"); die "Too few elements to populate" unless @tobepopulated ; my $inc = @elems / @tobepopulated; my $elIndex = $inc; for my $to (@tobepopulated) { $to .= "-$elems[$elIndex]"; $elIndex += $inc; } print "@tobepopulated"; #### foo-x foo-x foo-x foo-y foo-y foo-y foo-z foo-z foo-z foo-z