my $before = [qw(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)]; my $after = [qw(1 2 4 3 5 6 7 8 9 10)]; $k=0; for($i=0;$i<=@$before;$i++) { for($j=$k;$j<=@$after;$j++) { if(@$before[$i] eq @$after[$j] and $i==$j) { $i++;$k++; } if(@$before[$i] eq @$after[$j] and $i!=$j) { print "element @$before[$i] is moved to the position ",$j+1; $i=@$before+1; last; } } } __DATA__ element 3 is moved to the position 4