Yes, I almost immediately updated my reply. But what if

    @small = qw /78.6 78.8 79.0 80.2 79.8/;
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But if we can assume $small [0] is correct, I suggest the following one-liner:

    @small = do {my $i; grep {$_ eq $small [0] .. ++ $i == @small} @nu
+mbers};
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the other numbers in @small aren'r relevant then, only how many numbers there are.

Abigail