my @array = (2 ,4, 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, 20, 18, 7 ); my $percent = (scalar @array * 0.20); my (@resultA, @resultB); my @ordered = sort {$a <=> $b} @array; @resultB = splice(@ordered, 0, $percent); @resultA = splice(@ordered, (scalar @ordered - $percent)); print "@array", "\n"; for (my $i=0; $i < scalar @array; $i++) { if ( grep { $array[$i] eq $_ } @resultA ) { $array[$i] = 'A'; } elsif ( grep { $array[$i] eq $_ } @resultB ) { $array[$i] = 'B'; } else { $array[$i] = '-'; } } print "@array", "\n";