$ perl -le '@f = glob("*.mp3"); push @{$f[/ad/]}, $_ foreach @f; use Data::Dumper; print Dumper(\@f, \@{"bad.mp3"}, \@{"bar.mp3"})' $VAR1 = [ 'bad.mp3', 'bar.mp3', 'foo.mp3', 'moo.mp3' ]; $VAR2 = [ 'bar.mp3', 'foo.mp3', 'moo.mp3' ]; $VAR3 = [ 'bad.mp3' ];