my @arr=( [qw(a b c d)], [qw(e f g)], [qw(h i j)], [qw(e f g)], [qw(h i j)], [qw(e f g)], [qw(h i j)], [qw(a b c d)], [qw(a b c d)], ); print join(':', map {join '', @$_} @arr) . "\n"; my @arr1 = grep {! grep {/e/} @$_} @arr; print join(':', map {join '', @$_} @arr1) . "\n";