use warnings;
use strict;
sub multipop(\@$);

my @array  = (1 .. 10);
my @result = multipop @array, 3;
print "@array\n";
print "@result\n";

sub multipop(\@$) {
    my $count = pop;
    my @vars;
    $count = 1 if ! defined $count; # default to normal pop behavior
    if ( $count =~ /^\d+$/ ) {
    	my $length = scalar @{$_[0]};
	    $count =  $length if $count > $length;
	    # Using @{$_[0]} to ensure that we modify original array
        push @vars, splice ( @{$_[0]}, -$count, $count ) if $count > 0;
        return @vars;
    } else {
    	warn "Second argument to multipop must be numeric: '$count'";
    }
}

##</code><code>##

my @result = multipop @array, 3;