Let's fix the base problem, so you don't have to even think about eval at all. 
use strict;

my @gameboard = (
    [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ],
    [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 1 ],
    [ 3, 4, 5, 1, 2 ],
    [ 4, 5, 1, 2, 3 ],
    [ 5, 1, 2, 3, 4 ],
);

for my $i (1 .. 4) {
    for my $j ($i + 1 .. 5) {
        if ($gameboard[$i][0] == $gameboard[$j][0]) {
            print "Matched $i,0 and $j,0\n";
        }
    }
}

[download]

These are called array references. It's the way Perl (from 5.000 onwards) does multi-level data structures. Read up on them - they'll make your life very easy.

------
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Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

In reply to Re: Using eval to build array structure by dragonchild
in thread Using eval to build array structure by Popcorn Dave

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