use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @input = qw{ 1200 1300 1200 1000 1100 1200 1500 1700 2000 2100 3000 2100 1200 1500 1700 1700 }; my @groups = deDup( \ @input ); print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ @groups ], [ qw{ *groups } ] ); sub deDup { my $raToCheck = shift; my $raUniq = []; my $raDups = []; my %seen; push @{ $seen{ $_ } ++ ? $raDups : $raUniq }, $_ for @$raToCheck; return $raUniq, @$raDups ? deDup( $raDups ) : (); } #### @groups = ( [ '1200', '1300', '1000', '1100', '1500', '1700', '2000', '2100', '3000' ], [ '1200', '2100', '1500', '1700' ], [ '1200', '1700' ], [ '1200' ] );