#!perl -w use strict; $|=1; my (%a,%b,%c); for (0 .. 500_000) { # set higher if you dare $a{$_} = "x" x 60; # 60 character string $b{$_} = "x" x 60; $c{$_} = "x" x 60; print "\rrow $_" unless $_ % 10000; }