use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
 
# Returns non-empty strings with leading and trailing spaces removed.
sub trim_nonempties
{
   ## no critic (ProhibitMutatingListFunctions)
   grep { !/^\s*$/ && s/^\s*|\s*$//g } @_;
   ## use critic
}
 
my @x = ( ' hello ', "\thello again\t", '', " ", " \t", 'jock', "\t abc", "def \t " );
print Dumper(\@x);
my @y = trim_nonempties(@x);
print Dumper(\@y);

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          ' hello ',
          '     hello again     ',
          '',
          ' ',
          '     ',
          'jock',
          '      abc',
          'def   '
        ];
$VAR1 = [
          'hello',
          'hello again',
          'jock',
          'abc',
          'def'
        ];