mreece++ (similarly wojtyk below)... at least if we've correctly interpreted the OP's requirements.

However, since the OP explicitly requested an Array of Arrays, I'd modify the code somewhat (and add a minimum of error checking):

# Dummy stuff for testing:
my @array1 = qw ( a b c );
my @array2 = qw ( d e f );
my @et_cetera = qw ( etc etc etc );
my $opt_f = '@array1,@array2,@et_cetera';

my @AoA;
for ( split /,/, $opt_f ) {
  my $array_ref = eval '\\' . $_;
  die "Bad input: '$_' doesn't seem to exist!\n" if $@;
  push @AoA, $array_ref;
}
print "@$_\n" for @AoA;
[download]