#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings; my @array = map {[split / /]} ( "11 12", "11 13", "9 8 7", "3 4", "11 4" ); my %index = (); for my $i (0..$#array) { for my $val (@{$array[$i]}) { push @{$index{$val}}, $i; } } for my $i (0..$#array) { my $arr = $array[$i] or next; $array[$i] = undef; my %values = (); for my $val (@$arr) { next if $values{$val}++; for my $ind (@{$index{$val}}) { my $related = $array[$ind] or next; $array[$ind] = undef; push @$arr, @$related; } } print join(' ', sort {$a <=> $b} keys %values), "\n"; } #### 3 4 11 12 13 7 8 9