Here is an example of why using @arr[0] is just asking from trouble...

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;

my @arr;

@arr[0] = localtime();
$arr[1] = localtime();

print "\$arr[0] = $arr[0]\n";
print "\$arr[1] = $arr[1]\n";
[download]

Any guesses about the output of this simple script? Select area below to find out.

=OUTPUT Scalar value @arr[0] better written as $arr[0] at ./arrayslice.pl line + 6. $arr[0] = 58 $arr[1] = Tue Oct 23 14:30:58 2001 [download] 5 points for anyone who expected $arr[0] to contain an integer. 20 points for anyone who knew it would contain the seconds value, *not* the number of elements in the list returned by localtime(). (10 points for anyone who coded up an example because they weren't sure... woohoo)

-Blake