Here's a succint but untested solution. If you're comparing lists or hashes of numbers, just replace eq with ==. If you don't like or don't understand Perl prototypes... well, too bad :) 
# returns the largest element in a list
sub max(@) { (sort @_)[-1] }

# returns the union of two lists - i.e., all elements which are in at 
+least one list
sub union(@@) { ++$f{$_} foreach (@{$_[0]}, @{$_[1]}); keys %f } }

# compares two list values for equality, by way of scalar(grep)
# note that it takes into account the possibility of lists of differen
+t sizes
sub lst_eq(@@) { scalar (grep { $_[0][$_] eq $_[1][$_] } (0..max ($#{$
+_[0]}, $#{$_[1]})) }

# compares two hashes for equality, by way of scalar(grep)
# note that it takes into account the possibility of hashes with diffe
+rent keys
sub hsh_eq(%%) { scalar (grep { $_[0]{$_} eq $_[1]{$_} } union (keys (
+%{$_[0]}), keys (%{$_[0]}))) }

[download]

In reply to Re: Comparing arrays by Anonymous Monk
in thread Comparing arrays by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.