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

sub eat_array {
	my $array = shift;

	print "The array has " . @$array . " elements\n";

	my ($minvalue) = ($array->[0] =~ /\|(\d+)$/);

	my ($minidx, $idx) = (0,0);
	foreach (@$array) {
		my ($currvalue) = (/\|(\d+)$/);
		if ($minvalue > $currvalue) {
			$minidx = $idx;
			$minvalue = $currvalue;  
		}
		++$idx;
	}

	my $minimum = splice @$array, $minidx, 1;

	print "Minimum is: $minimum\n";
	
	return ($minimum, @$array ? eat_array($array) : ());
}
  
my @testcase = (
	'a|a|1', 'a|a|9', 'a|a|0', 'a|a|12',
	'a|a|3', 'a|a|4', 'a|a|3', 'a|a|6',
	'a|a|9', 'a|a|1', 'a|a|5', 'a|a|7',
	'a|a|15', 'a|a|0', 'a|a|8', 'a|a|4',
);


print "\n";

my @results = eat_array(\@testcase);

print @results . " elements.\n@results\n";