use strict; my @a1 = ( 'x','y','z'); my @a2 = ('z','b','c'); my @combined = @a1; push(@combined,$_) for @a2; my %dupes; $dupes{$_}++ for (sort @combined); my @results = map{if($dupes{$_} > 1) { $_; }}keys %dupes; print @results;