I hadn't considered the overwrite problem. Probably because I write perfect script which never oversteps boundaries :P

At this point, I'm going with a modified version of what you recommend. Instead of using a function to return a copy of the array, the function refills the global 'our' array with the original data.

My thinking is that since I'll be calling a function to ensure the array I use has the original data, skip the copy and just refill the global 'our' array. None of those arrays are too large, so the file read to fill the array shouldn't impact the run time of the script too much.

Hmmm. That last sentence brings to mind the phrase "Famous last words." I wonder why...