for my $i (0 .. $#{$AoAref}){ my $aref = ${$AoAref}[$i]; print "array is: ${$AoAref}[$i]\n"; $arg1 = ${$AoAref}[$i] if ${$AoAref}[$i][0] == "160001"; $arg2 = ${$AoAref}[$i] if ${$AoAref}[$i][0] == "170001"; $arg3 = ${$AoAref}[$i] if ${$AoAref}[$i][0] == "670002"; }