#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my @array_1 = qw/A B/; my @array_2 = qw/A B C D A D B A C/; my %check_1 = map { $_ => 1 } @array_1; my %counts; map { $counts{$_}++ if $check_1{$_} } @array_2; print "$_ : $counts{$_}\n" for keys %counts;