The author's problem was to remove duplicate elements from an input file, not an array. While reading the elements from the input file into an array and then applying the FAQ-given solution is one way of solving the author's problem, there are other solutions available that are simpler and more efficient (see my follow-up post for one of them).

I agree that the FAQ is the first place to look for answers and that we ought to point to it in responses to questions like this. But I also think that we ought to read questions carefully and answer the whole of the questions actually asked, even if the FAQ answers similar questions for us. While it might be easy for some to convert the FAQ's answers into the original questions' answers, that task might be beyond some readers.

Updated: I removed the last half of this post because it was overly preachy. All I really wanted to say was, When we post pointers to the FAQ, let's also spend a few moments relating it back to the context of the original problem. I'm leaving this big Updated notice here as a humbling reminder to myself to stay off the soapbox.

Cheers,
Tom

Tom Moertel : Blog / Talks / CPAN / LectroTest / PXSL / Coffee / Movie Rating Decoder

In reply to A brief plea regarding pointers to the FAQ by tmoertel
in thread Getting rid of duplicates by New Novice

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.