(I'm still not a daily map user, but maybe I'm getting there?) perldoc -f map Answer: --------- map { s/\s+$// } @j; Demo code: --------- $ cat j.pl my @j = ("a ", "b ", "c "); print join "|", @j; print "\n"; map { s/\s+$// } @j; print join "|", @j; print "\n"; Demo run: --------- $ perl j.pl a |b |c a|b|c Cheers, j