my @array1 = ('foo', 'bar', 'baz'); my @array2 = ('zim', 'zam', 'baz'); # should work: for (0 .. $#array1) { if ($array1[$_] eq $array2[$_]) { print "match! $array[$_]\n" } else { print "mismatch $array1[$_] ne $array2[$_] } } # should give a similar error: for (@array1) { if ($array1[$_] eq $array2[$_]) { print "match! $array[$_]\n" } else { print "mismatch $array1[$_] ne $array2[$_] } }