sub balanced
{
        $_ = shift;
        while (s/[(][^()]*[)]//) {};
        return 0 if /[()]/;
        return 1;
}

##</code><code>##

sub balanced
{
        my $string = shift;
        my $stack  = 0;

        for my $index (0..length($string) - 1)
        {
                my $char = substr($string, $index, 1);
                if ($char eq '(')
                {
                        $stack++;
                } elsif ($char eq ')') {
                        $stack--;
                }

##</code><code>##

                return 0 if $stack < 0;
	}

        return $stack ? 0 : 1;
}