my @output; printDiff($#s1, $#s2); print join "\n", @output; sub printDiff { my ($i, $j) = @_; if ($i > 0 && $j > 0 and $s1[$i] eq $s2[$j]) { printDiff($i-1, $j-1); $output[0] .= " " . $s1[$i]; $output[1] .= " " . $s1[$i]; } else { if ($j > 0 && ($i == 0 || $M[$i][$j-1] >= $M[$i-1][$j])) { printDiff($i, $j-1); $output[1] .= " <" . $s2[$j] . ">"; } elsif ($i > 0 && ($j == 0 || $M[$i][$j-1] < $M[$i-1][$j])) { printDiff($i-1, $j); $output[0] .= " [" . $s1[$i] . "]"; } } }