my @diff; my @inter my %count2 = (); foreach my $element (@union,@ICUNAV) { my $k=join '',@$element; $count2{$k}{COUNT}++; $count2{$k}{ELEMENT}=$element; }; foreach my $element (keys %count2) { push @{ $count2{$element}{COUNT} > 1 ? \@inter : \@diff }, $count2{$element}{ELEMENT}; }; print Dumper(@diff),"\n";