You could create the array in processA() / processB() and pass a reference to it to commonStuff() as a parameter:

processAorB ....{
   my @commonArray;
   commonStuff( \@commonArray, \%other, \$variables );
   ...
}
sub commonStuff {
   my ( $commonArrayRef, $hash, $var ) = @_;
   if ( $commonArrayRef->[0] > 37 ) { ...
 
   }
}
[download]

As you can see, accessing the $commonArrayRef contents is just like handling the array itself, except for sticking an arrow in the middle. There's only one array, it's only a reference which is passed around, rather than copying the array, so function calls are faster, and any changes to the array within commonStuff() is visible where it is called.

If you don't need the array outside commonStuff(), you can use a closure. The one trick would be detecting when you go from processA() to processB() ... I'm assuming the array should be re-initialized at that point. Hopefully, there is some way of detecting within commonStuff() when the time has come to re-initialize. Alternately, you could provide a second closure method for re-initializing the closure, and invoke that at appropriate times from processA() / processB().

sub processA {
   ...
   commonInit()
   commonStuff( $various, $vars );
}
sub processB {
   ...
   commonInit()
   commonStuff( $various, $other, $vars );

}
{
    my @commonArray;

    sub commonInit {
        @commonArray = ();
    }

    sub commonStuff {
        # do stuff to @commonArray;
    }
}
[download]

This way, you can preserve your data without polluting the entire environment. You might also split the common stuff into several routines.

--
TTTATCGGTCGTTATATAGATGTTTGCA

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