TMTOWTDI! The original poster mentioned reading the file to an array, so presumably that way of thinking comes more naturally for him. I'm not suggesting my version was "best"; but Tie::File *is* better than the @lines = <FILE> the OP wanted to do while allowing the same (or close enough) semantics later.

Your method is perfectly valid, of course, and I write code like that all the time. (Though nowadays I am more likely to use a lexical filehandle.) I also alternate between using Exporter and writing my own import routines that do the same thing. It depends on what I'm optimizing for, and sometimes *that* is just writing the code quickly, so whatever comes to mind first gets to be used.