To remove an element of an array you have to splice it out. This means you have to find the first index of the matching element: 
for my $i (0..$#array) {
  if ($array[$i] eq "joby") {
    splice(@array, $i, 1);
    last; # exit loop - only interested in the first match
  }
}

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Your use of shift(@array) removes the first element of the array, not the element you are currently examining.

In reply to Re: Trouble with loops by pc88mxer
in thread Trouble with loops by jobybett

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