What I get now is the index that starts at 0 and that's not what I want.

Obvious solution: add 1 to each number.

my @vdbhosts = sort @lines;
foreach my $i (0..$#vdbhosts) {
    print " " . $i + 1 . ". $vdbhosts[$i]\n";
}
print "\n";
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Then when you've retrieved the number from the user simply subtract 1 to obtain the index in the array. eg:

my ($userinput) = (<> =~ /([0-9]+)/g);
die "User did not input a number" unless defined $userinput;
die "User's number ($userinput) is out of range" unless (0 < $userinpu
+t and $#vdbhosts >= $userinput - 1);
print "Your choice was number $userinput which is " . $vdbhosts[$useri
+nput - 1] . "\n";
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Or is there some deeper problem which I've missed?

Expert's note: You can change the starting index of an array to be 1 instead of 0. But don't do that unless/until you know what you're doing.

I implemented the first portion of code and it did exactly what I wanted. I now have a list with all returned items ordered from 1 to X. I issue though. The first portion of the print line is supposed to indent the list by 2 spaces. The spaces are being ignored and instead the list is left justified to the edge of the screen.

Second portion works as well, however I need to modify it a bit to get what I want. My goal is to allow for input of multiple numbers separated by commas which would then be printed to a text file with each entry being on a new line. Working on this part now.

Thank you!

The first portion of the print line is supposed to indent the list by 2 spaces. The spaces are being ignored and instead the list is left justified to the edge of the screen.

There are plenty of options for formatted output in Perl. However, the most straight forward (particularly with those familiar with it from other languages) is likely to be printf.

Use a counter:

my @vdbhosts = sort @lines;
my $count = 1;
for ( @vdbhosts ) {
    print "$count: $vdbhosts[ $count ]\n";
    $count++;
}
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Hope this helps!

This sort of worked. When I use this code as specified, I get results numbered 1 - 7. The problem is there are 8 records in the file. It skips the first item in the array with the index of 0. If I change it to count = 0, I get all 8 items but numbered starting at 0

Cool! Besides the solution you were shown involving adding one to the index before you print it, you could also use unshift to pad the array and work with its true index:

my @vdbhosts = sort @lines;
unshift @vdbhosts, 'padding';

my $count = 0;
for ( @vdbhosts ) {
    my $host = $vdbhosts[ $count ];
    print "$count: $host\n" unless $host eq 'padding';
    $count++;
}
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Hope this helps!

Edit: added alternative solution example, my original reply didn't add much ;-)

The way forward always starts with a minimal test.

Add an unused entry to the front of the array, then indexes will align with the data in the way you want.

Here's a partial example:

#!/usr/bin/perl

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1143022

use strict;
use warnings;

my @names = qw( aaa bbbb ccccc dddd ee fffff gggg hhhhhh );

# add unused item to front to align names with indexes

unshift @names, 'unused';

for my $index (1 .. $#names)
  {
  printf "%2d %s\n", $index, $names[$index];
  }
print "\nselect desired by number:\n";
my $in = <STDIN>;

# validate input

chomp $in;
$in =~ /^[\d,\s]+$/ or die "$in is an invalid input";

for my $index ($in =~ /\d+/g )
  {
  if( $index >= 1 and $index <= $#names )
    {
    print "selected $names[$index]\n";
    }
  else
    {
    die "$index is outside the allowable range\n";
    }
  }
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This is perl. Why try to cope with "off by one" (add 1 or subtract 1?) if you don't have to? :)

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;<P>

my @names = qw (Tizio Caio Sempronio);<P>

show_indexed();<P>

my @selected = select_by_index();
print "First choice:\n--->",(join "\n--->",@selected),"\n";<P>

## and then..
push @names,'stevek1974';
show_indexed();<P>

my @selected_bis = select_by_index();
print "Second choice:\n--->",(join "\n--->",@selected_bis),"\n";<P>

######################################################################
+##########
sub show_indexed {
    print "\nChoice one or more name, using their index:\n";
    my $index = 0;
    foreach my $name (@names){
      print  "[$index]\t$name\n";
      $index++;
    }
    print "\n";
}
######################################################################
+##########
sub select_by_index {
    my $in = <STDIN>;
    chomp $in;
    # checks are needed in thi case..
    unless ($in=~/^[\d,]+$/){warn "WARNING: invalid input!\n";select_b
+y_index()}<P>

    my @choice = @names[split /,/, $in];#thanks to tye and choroba: i 
+used @names[eval $in]
    # more checks are better..
    unless (defined $choice[0]){
            warn "WARNING: probably you need to check that input numbe
+rs are
                  valid for the current array!\n";
            select_by_index()
    }
    return @choice;
}
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I am actually working with the snippet provided by hippo. It is working for the most part and I've modified it a bit to get to my end goal. I just need to fix formatting a bit and add the error checking, but so far so good.

Thanks for your suggestion as well.

What I need help with is assigning a number from 1 to X to each item in the array. Then, making sure that the value associated with that number is the items value and not the number.

Which part of the code is supposed to do that?