my @arr = (12341,1245125,1525125,125125125); my $str; # should be: "job==12341 || job==1245125 || job==1525125 || job==125125125" my $flag = 1; my $counter = 0; foreach my $num (@arr) { $flag = 0 if($counter == scalar(@arr) - 1); $str .= "\"" if($counter == 0); $str .= "job==".$num; $str .= " || " if($flag); $str .= "\"" if($counter == scalar(@arr) - 1); $counter++; } print $str."\n";