@array = qw(6 6 5 5 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7);

__DATA__
6 6 5 5 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
====================
1 = 1 2
2 = 1 3
3 = 1 4
4 = 2 3
5 = 2 4
6 = 2 5
7 = 3 4
8 = 3 5
9 = 4 6
10 = 4 7
11 = 6 7
12 = 7 8
12 counts
$VAR1 = {
          '6' => 0,
          '3' => 0,
          '7' => 5,
          '2' => 0,
          '8' => 7,
          '1' => 0,
          '4' => 0,
          '5' => 0
        };
1 = 7 8
2 = 4 7
3 = 3 7
4 = 2 7
5 = 1 7
6 = 6 7
7 = 5 7
8 = 4 8
9 = 3 8
10 = 2 8
11 = 1 8
12 = 6 8
13 = 5 8
14 = 3 4
15 = 2 4
16 = 1 4
17 = 2 3
17 counts
$VAR1 = {
          '6' => 0,
          '3' => 0,
          '7' => 1,
          '2' => 0,
          '8' => 1,
          '1' => 0,
          '4' => 0,
          '5' => 0
        };
get_pairs1 produces: 36 rows
get_pairs2 produces: 67 rows