c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dumper -le "my $aref = [ [ 'kept', 82 ], [ 'notkept', 1 ], [ 'repaired', 3 ], ]; print Dumper $aref; ;; for my $i (0 .. $#$aref) { printf qq{label $aref->[$i][0] }; } print qq{\n ---------}; ;; for my $aref_2nd_level (@$aref) { printf qq{label $aref_2nd_level->[0] }; } " $VAR1 = [ [ 'kept', 82 ], [ 'notkept', 1 ], [ 'repaired', 3 ] ]; label kept label notkept label repaired --------- label kept label notkept label repaired