#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @ary = ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 );
my @alt = @ary;
my $ndx = getArrayIndex( 3, @ary );

# Here's how delete handles it
print "Delete - Before: ", arrayToString( @ary ), "\n";
delete $ary[ $ndx ];
print "Delete - After: ", arrayToString( @ary ), "\n";

print "\n";  # A touch of white space.

# Now, let's try splice
print "Splice - Before: ", arrayToString( @alt ), "\n";
splice( @alt, $ndx, 1 );
print "Splice - After: ", arrayToString( @alt ), "\n";

exit 1;


sub arrayToString
# --------------------------------------------------------------
# Joins an array's values without the warning for uninitized 
# elements.  Also, replaces undef values with an appropriate
# string.
# --------------------------------------------------------------
{
   my @values = @_;
   my $output = "";
   for (@values) 
   { 
      if ( defined( $_ ) )
         { $output .= $_ }
      else 
         { $output .= "undef" }

      # comment this out if you don't want trailing spaces.
      $output .= " ";  
   }
   return $output;
}

sub getArrayIndex
# --------------------------------------------------------------
# When given a scalar and an array, this either returns the 
# of the scalar in the array or -1 (not found).
# --------------------------------------------------------------
{
  my $value = shift;
  my @values = @_;
  my $result = -1;

  for ( my $index = 0; $index < @values; $index++ )
  {
    if ( $value eq $values[ $index ] )
    { 
      $result = $index;
      last;
    }
  }
    return $result;
}