Well, one answer/question is "why NOT use references?"

Another idea may be to pass in the size of the array, then you can slice them apart or something.

use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @a=qw(1 2 3 4 5);
my %b=(
a => 1,
b => 2,
c => 3
);


sub printdata
{
my $size=shift;
my @x=@_[0..$size];
my %y=@_[$size+1..$#_];

print Dumper(\@x, \%y);

}


printdata($#a, @a, %b);

#__OUTPUT__
$VAR1 = [
          '1',
          '2',
          '3',
          '4',
          '5'
        ];
$VAR2 = {
          'c' => 3,
          'a' => 1,
          'b' => 2
        };
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I don't usually do this. I usually work with references since you take a performance hit when perl is forced to copy your arrays and hashes into a new memory slot when you pass then into a function. If there is a better way to do this, lemme know! I could swear I read about this in the camel book, but I am too tired to look it up now.

HTH

process_article(*WFH, $locations{$article}, $lists{$list});

sub process_article {
  local(*FH)= shift;
  my($loc, $key)= @_;
  # then use print FH "anything" to print to your file
  # $loc->{keyword} instead of $location{keyword}
  # and $key->[index] instead of $keyword[index]
}
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use strict;
{
    local $\="\n";
    print for %INC;
}
sub foy {
  my %a = %{shift(@_)};
  my @b = @{shift(@_)};
  return %a . ' ' . @b;
}
die foy ( { 1 .. 10 }, [ 1..10 ] );
__END__
strict.pm
C:/Perl/lib/strict.pm
4/8 10 at - line 11.
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MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"

I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).

** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

++PodMaster. That tripped me up for a minute. However, I have to point out that technically your are using anonymous arrays/hashes(and therefore references;)

Peace

#!/usr/bin/perl

sub process_article(*\%\@) 
{
  my $fh=shift;
  my ($locations, $keywords)=@_;
  print "Locations: ",join(" ",keys %{$locations}),"\n";
  print " Keywords: @$keywords\n";
}



%l = (Flint => 'Michigan',
       Bangor => 'Maine',
       Atlanta => 'Georgia',
     );
@keywords=qw(magic snarf prognosticative doohickey);

process_article(STDIN,%l,@keywords);
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