use Data::Dumper;

my @abc =    #abc is an array of references to arrays
  ( [qw (q   w  e  r)], 
    [qw (1   x  3  r)], 
    [qw (qwe rt 434 )], 
  );

print Dumper ( \@abc );    ## pass array @abc as an array reference

my $abc =    #abc is an array reference that contains references to arrays
  [ [qw (q   w  e  r)], 
    [qw (1   x  3  r)], 
    [qw (qwe rt 434 )], 
  ];

print Dumper ($abc);    ## pass the array reference