The return value of a sub in Perl is the value of the last expression, or you can explicitly use a return statement. In this case, since there's only path through the sub, you can just do:

  close(OUT);
  @List;
}
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  close(OUT);
  return @List;
}
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However, there are a couple of other improvements in your code which would make it simpler, easier, and more general.

• Don't use the third argument to split unless you really need it. Perl will allocate space as needed.
• To get the next-to-last element of the @Fields array, just use $Fields[-2].
• You're only using $Record as a placeholder. That's just what $_ is meant for.

while (<IN>) {
  s/,//;
  @Fields = split ' ';
  $Lable = $Fields[-2];  #sic -- should be "Label"
  $Slot = $Fields[2];
  # You never set $Type, so the next line will get
  # a "use of undefined value" warning.
  push @List, "$Slot $Type $Lable";
}
# You also never write anything to OUT
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HTH

open(IN,"adsm_cmd q libv|");
open(OUT,">/tmp/show_library.$$");

while (<IN>) {
  next unless (/3584/);
  
  # VSarkiss stuff
  ...
}
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Thanks for the great advice.
I'm still stuck, though, on how to loop through this list from the calling sub.

sub TSM_Enquire {
  my $Slot, $Type, $Label;

  open(IN,"/bbs/rtscripts/adsm_cmd q libv|");

  while (<IN>) {
    next unless (/3584/);
    s/,//;
    @Fields = split ' ';
    $Label = $Fields[2];
    $Slot = $Fields[$#Fields-1];
    $Type = $Fields[3];
    push @List, "$Slot $Type $Label";
  }

  close(IN);
  return @List;
}

sub Process_Columns {
  my $Count=0;
  my $Simple;
  my @Column_Info = ( [ 1024, 1067 ],     # Column 1 start stop
                      [ 1068, 1093 ],     # Column 2 start stop
                      [ 1094, 1137 ],     # Column 3 start stop
                      [ 1138, 1163 ],     # Column 4 start stop
                      [ 1164, 1207 ],     # Column 5 start stop
                      [ 1208, 1233 ],     # Column 6 start stop
                      [ 1234, 1277 ],     # Column 7 start stop
                      [ 1278, 1321 ] );   # Column 8 start stop

  if ($LibraryType =~ "tsm") {
     @List = TSM_Enquire;
  } else {
     @List = Tapeutil_Enquire;
  }

  for ($Count=1;$Count<=8;$Count++) { # Traverse columns
    my $StartPos = $Column_Info[$Count][1];
    my $Pos = $StartPos; 
    my $Column_Count = 0;
    my $EndPos = $Column_Info[$Count][2];
    my $NewPos=0;
    my $NewLabel="";
    my $NewRec="";

    while ($NewRec = @List) {
      chomp $NewRec;
      $NewRec =~ s/^ //;
      ($Pos, $Type, $Label) = split(' ', $NewRec, 9999);
      for ($I=1;$I<=($EndPos-$StartPos)+1;$I++) {
<snip>
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I that the above is wrong (because it doesn't work, read as: doesn't do what I want).
Any ideas, comments, etc?
TIA
coec

It looks suspiciously like you have a scoping issue with @List. What is probably happening is that you have (either explicitly or implicitly) created a *global* variable called @List, rather than a local variable within each subroutine. I would suggest adding my @List; to the beginning of your TSM_Enquire and Process_Columns subs, which will give them each a private copy of the list that is empty each time the sub is first executed. For more details, you can check out the sections on scoping in perldoc perlsub.

Also, you might also want to use strict; at the beginning of your program to help catch errors like this in the future.

If that doesn't solve the problem, it might be worth trying some simple debugging tricks, like adding warn statements on subroutine entry and exit and when you are manipulating @List or other variables that are central to what your code is trying to accomplish.

@Fields = /(\S*)\s+(\S*)\s+(\S*)(.*?)(\d.*)/;
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Besides the improvements to your loop already suggested by VSarkiss, you can use array slices and the fact that "@array" will separate the values using $" which defaults to " " (a space) to eliminate all those temp variables and concatenations.

push @List, "@Fields[2,3,-1]"; # Fix the columns as necessary.
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Finally, I'd suggest you read up on references and consider returning a reference to the array instead of the whole list.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";