use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $string = join q{}, map { int rand 10 } 1 .. 24; my @AoAofSixes = map { [ split m{} ] } $string =~ m{.{6}}g; print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @AoAofSixes ], [ q{*AoAofSixes} ] );