What is the best way to do this? I need to assign values from a split, but I'd like to throw away values that are meaningless or unwanted.

I can think of a few other ways to do this, but these were the best two I came up with.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

# Use undef hash values for unneeded fields
my @fields = (
    'FIRSTNAME',
    'LASTNAME',
    'PHONE',
    undef, # Useless data
    undef, # Useless data
    undef, # Useless data
    'FAX',
    undef, # Useless data
    'CITY',
    'STATE',
);

# Use dummy key for unneeded fields
my @fields2 = (
    'FIRSTNAME',
    'LASTNAME',
    'PHONE',
    'DUMMY', # Useless data
    'DUMMY', # Useless data
    'DUMMY', # Useless data
    'FAX',
    'DUMMY', # Useless data
    'CITY',
    'STATE',
);


while (<DATA>)
{
    chomp;
    my (%record, %record2);
    # Using undef keys; requires disabling warnings
    # about uninitialized values in hash slice
    no warnings;
    @record{@fields} = split(/\t/, $_);
    print "1) First Name: $record{FIRSTNAME}, State: $record{STATE}\n"
+;

    # Using dummy key, then deleting it
    use warnings;
    @record2{@fields2} = split(/\t/, $_);
    delete $record2{'DUMMY'};
    print "2) First Name: $record2{FIRSTNAME}, State: $record2{STATE}\
+n";
}

print "\n---------------\nDone.\n";

exit;

__DATA__
Bill    Davis    999-888-7777    KH101    1    1    999-888-7770    19
+65    Chantilly    VA
Bob    Rogers    999-777-8888    KH101    1    1    999-777-8880    19
+53    Dallas    TX
Jim    Dawson    999-787-8787    KH101    1    1    999-787-8787    19
+72    San Diego    CA
Harry    Jones    999-878-7878    KH101    1    1    999-878-7870    1
+963    Chicago    IL
John    Black    999-778-7788    KH101    1    1    999-778-7788    19
+36    Topeka    KS
[download]

Which of these is the better solution, or does someone (I hope) have another solution that would be best?

Impossible Robot

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