my $res = ''; for my $i ( 0 .. (length($array_of_test_names[0]) -1)) { my $letter = substr ($array_of_test_names[0],$i,1); last if ( scalar grep { $letter ne substr($array_of_test_names[$_],$i,1)} (0 .. $#array_of_test_names)); $res .= $letter; }; print $res,"\n";