Sounds like you're on the right track. You are using strict, aren't you? Perhaps you have a typo. This program: 
use strict;
my $rest = 'a b c d password';
my @rest = split(/ /, $rest);
print "\@rest=@rest\n";
my $apass = pop @rest;
print "PASS: $apass\n";
print "\@rest=@rest\n";

[download]
produces:
@rest=a b c d password
PASS: password
@rest=a b c d

[download]

update: And maybe you have a space at the end of your scalar, and so the last element is empty. You may want to print out the scalar first with something around it like print "($rest)\n" so you can see it.

In reply to Re: unGodly problems with pop() by bikeNomad
in thread unGodly problems with pop() by Anonymous Monk

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