Andrea, Even if you do have commified strings, it should still work. Right?
################################### use strict; my(@array, @unique, %seen); $array[0] = ["apples","oranges","plums", "Arul, Rex", "Holstein, Andrea", "Clinton,Bill"]; $array[1] = ["asparagus", "corn","peas"]; $array[2] = ["ham","chicken","lamb"]; $array[3] = ["apples","oranges","plums", "Arul, Rex", "Holstein, Andrea", "Clinton,Bill"]; my @unique = grep {!$seen{join (", ", @$_)}++} @array; map { print "@$_ \n" } @unique; ################################## Here is the output: C:\Perl\Rex>perl testunique.pl apples oranges plums Arul, Rex Holstein, Andrea Clinton,Bill asparagus corn peas ham chicken lamb > > Why dirty? > I simply join all entries in every array with a ", ". > It's not general that in strings aren't commata :-) > > Best Wishes, > Andrea > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]