use Data::Dumper;

my @abc =    #abc is an array of references to arrays
  ( [qw (q   w  e  r)], 
    [qw (1   x  3  r)], 
    [qw (qwe rt 434 )], 
  );

print Dumper ( \@abc );    ## pass array @abc as an array reference

my $abc =    #abc is an array reference that contains references to arrays
  [ [qw (q   w  e  r)], 
    [qw (1   x  3  r)], 
    [qw (qwe rt 434 )], 
  ];

print Dumper ($abc);    ## pass the array reference

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          [
            'q',
            'w',
            'e',
            'r'
          ],
          [
            '1',
            'x',
            '3',
            'r'
          ],
          [
            'qwe',
            'rt',
            '434'
          ]
        ];