use Data::Dumper; sub sub1{ for $x (0 .. 100){ $array[$x] = 0; } # omit the part for generating the array; return \@array; } ####################### main part my $index; for ($index=0; $index<2; $index++){ $arr_ref = &sub1($index); $arr[$index] = @$arr_ref; die Dumper(\@arr); foreach (0 .. 100){ print "$arr[$index][$_]\n"; } }