I'm sure fresher eyes will come up with a better solution - or just tell me what's wrong with this

my $cnr = 0;
while ($cnr < 1) {
    my $xda = int rand (0 .. $total);
    if ( $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ] ne q{}) {
        $aob[$x][$y] = $z + $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ];
        $cnr++;
    }
}

[download]

What this is supposed to do is find the first non-empty randomly chosen member of @aob line $y-1 (which has numbers and blanks) and assign that value plus $z to $aob[$x][$y]. Unfortunately,the script just sits with a blinking cursor at this section, so I assume it's in a loop.

Warnings and strict are on, no warnings.

Now, I do have a cludgy work around

Never mind - looking back at my cludgy work around and tweaking it: 

my @delarray = ( 0 .. $total )
my $cnr = 0;
my @dlarray  = shuffle @delarray;
for my $xd ( 0 .. $total ) {
    my $xda = $dlarray[$xd];
    if ( $cnr <= 1 && defined $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ] ) {
        $aob[$x][$y] = $z + $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ];
        $cnr++;
   }
}

[download]

In reply to While issues by Dandello

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