Thank you, you are correct! Re-examining my code in the interim between posting and your timely response, I noticed that I was in fact receiving a warning: 
print (...) interpreted as function at - line 7.

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Thank you for the clear explanation which has rectified my misunderstanding! I will also examine further your use of -MO=Deparse,p -e, which looks to be very useful indeed.

In reply to Re^2: arrays: shifting in while loop by ivanthemad
in thread arrays: shifting in while loop by ivanthemad

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