#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my @list1 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5); my @list2 = (2, 3, 4); my @diff; my %repeats; for (@list1, @list2) { $repeats{$_}++ } for (keys %repeats) { push @diff, $_ unless $repeats{$_} > 1; }