Here's the long drawn-out way, but I'm sure some people will be along shortly with more elegant solutions: 

my @array = qw(hello superduper hi);
my $shortest = $array[0];
for( @array ) { 
    $shortest = $_ if length $_ < length $shortest;
}

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In reply to Re: Finding the Shortest Element in an Array by friedo
in thread Finding the Shortest Element in an Array by awohld

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