It might be a lot easier if you just got what you wanted out of the readdir call first: 
    opendir (SONGS, $song_dir);
    @songs = sort grep { !/^\.\.?$/ } readdir(SONGS);
    closedir (SONGS);

[download]
So in one line you get the sorted, filtered, directory listing. In this case, grep will only allow those array elements that are not '.' and '..' to pass through.

Perl commands can be stacked, and the output of one flows right into the other, in a right to left manner. This means that your two statements: 
    @songs = readdir(SONGS);
    @songs = sort @songs;

[download]
Can actually be combined into a single equivalent one:     @songs = sort readdir(SONGS); Just as: 
    $x = $y;
    $x = $z + $x;

[download]
Can be converted to:    $x = $z + $y;

In reply to Re^3: removing x from a list by tadman
in thread removing x from a list by ashaman

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.