Here is one way to do it simply using av_shift and av_push iterating over the AV* It is probably not the best or fastest way. In general it is not recommended to operate on an array while iterating over it, although it can be done in certain circumstances. An alternative method, that removes the shift overhead is simply to create a new temp AV*, iterate over your original AV* extracting the values and doing the comparison and push into your new AV*. Don't forget to destroy your excess AV* or you will leak. See perlguts for all the handy macros you have available.....

use Inline 'C';

my @ary = ('aa'..'az', 'aj');
my $rc = remove_str( \@ary, 'aj' );
print"$rc\n@ary\n";

__END__
__C__
int
remove_str( SV* av_ref, SV* remove ) {
    AV* terms;
    SV* element;
    I32 num, i;
    STRLEN len;
    int retval = 0;

    terms = (AV *)SvRV(av_ref);
    num = av_len(terms);
    for( i=0; i<=num; i++ ) {
        element = av_shift(terms);
        if( strcmp( SvPV(element,len), SvPV(remove,len) ) )
            av_push(terms, element);
        else retval++;
    }
  return retval;
}
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