sub getfile { my ($qfn) = @_; open(my $fh, '<', $qfn) or die("Can't open \"$qfn\": $!\n"); <$fh> } my @files = ('file.txt', 'file2.txt' ); my @file_contents = map { [ getfile($_) ] } @files; #### sub getfile { my ($qfn) = @_; open(my $fh, '<', $qfn) or die("Can't open \"$qfn\": $!\n"); <$fh> } my @files = ('file.txt', 'file2.txt' ); my %file_contents = map { $_ => [ getfile($_) ] } @files; #### for my $file (keys %file_contents) { print("File $file:\n"); my $content = $file_contents{$file}; for my $line (@$content) { print($line); } print("\n"); }