my @Array_1 = ("a1","a2","a3","a4","a5","a6"); my @Array_2 = ("a1","b2","c3","a4","f5","a6"); my @Array_3 = ("1","2","3","4","5","6"); my %crossref; @crossref{@array_1} = (); my( @result_2, @result_3 ); foreach my $ix ( 0 .. $#array_2 ) { next if ! exists $crossref{$array_2[$ix]}; push @result_2, $array_2[$ix]; push @result_3, $array_3[$ix]; }