my $max = 0;
my $pop;
my $cnt = 0;
sort @ary;
while ($cnt < @ary) {
    if ($ary[$cnt] eq $ary[$cnt+$max]) {
        $pop = $ary[$cnt];
        while ($ary[$cnt] eq $ary[$cnt+$max]) {
            $max++;
        }
        $cnt += $max
    }
    else {
        $cnt ++;
    }
}
print "$pop, the most popular element, appears $max times";