use strict; use warnings; sub Fred($$) { my $arg1 = shift; my $arg2 = shift; print "arg1='$arg1'\n"; print "arg2='$arg2'\n"; } my @two_elt_arr = ( 'abc', 'def' ); Fred(@two_elt_arr); # oops, compile error: "Not enough arguments" Fred($two_elt_arr[0], $two_elt_arr[1]); # this works