sub gen; sub gen{ return @_[1..$#_] if $_[0] == 1; map{ my $p=$_; map{ $p . $_ } gen( $_[0]-1, @_[1..$#_] ) } @_[1..$#_] } my %seqs = ...; my @patterns = gen( 7, qw[A C G T] ); my %counts; for my $seq ( values %seqs ) { ++$counts{ substr $seq, $_, 7 } for 0 .. length( $seq )-7; } print "$_ ::= $counts{ $_ }" for @patterns;