You are trying to take an array slice with a string, the punctuation prevents it being converted to a number.

you could do this:

Updated to fix silly typo as pointed out by Kozz below 

my @splice_array = (2, 3..7);
print @array[@splice_array];

[download]
the problem is that you want the "string" to be expanded to a list and that won't happen with your current method. If you really want to use the string, then you have to eval it, as this will cause it be be expanded into a list, thus: 
my $splice_str = "2,3..7";
print @array[eval $splice_str];

[download]
but that's probably grossly inefficient.

Nuance

In reply to RE: Splicing an array. by nuance
in thread Splicing an array. by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.