# heres a functional way my @no_undefs=map{$_ || 0} @has_undefs; # or with a modifier !defined($array[$_]) and $array[$_]=0 foreach 0..$#array; # or more elegantly $array[$_]||=0 foreach 0..$#array; # or with a funky sub # might be slow or big lists though sub undefs2zero {$_[$_]||=0 foreach 0..$#_} undefs2zero(@array);