# calling the subroutine. in this example the
# first arg is a variable, second is a literal value
my $arg1 = 100;
my $return_value = add_these($arg1, 200);

print $return_value;

# subroutines receive arguments via an array named @_
# this version gets the args by array index
sub add_these{
    my $first = $_[0];
    my $second = $_[1];
    my $answer = $first + $second;
    return $answer; 
}

# this one shifts values off the front of the array 
# note that @_ is implied if an array is not given as 
# the argument to shift. commonly seen as:
# my $value = shift; 
sub add_these{
    my $first = shift @_;
    my $second = shift @_;
    my $answer = $first + $second;
    return $answer; 
}

# as shown here it is not necessary to assign the 
# arguments to an intermediate variable - you can
# use them directly (however the extra variables
# often makes the code more readable)
sub add_these{
    my $answer = $_[0] + $_[1];
    return $answer; 
}

# you don't even need to return a variable, you can 
# directly return the value calculated by an expression,
# as shown here and in the "hint" example you were given
sub add_these{
    return  $_[0] + $_[1];  
}