in reply to Is there any way to make an array non-greedy?

You have a bug:
my $string = join('x', 'a'x20);
should be
my $string = join('x', ('a')x20);
Fix that and it works.

If you always have one element left over, you can make the code readable as:

use strict;
use warnings;

my $string = join('x', ('a')x20);

my @foo = split('x', $string);
my $foo = pop(@foo);
print "Success!\n" if $foo eq "a";

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If you always have a variable number of elements left over, you have a problem fixed as follows:

use strict;
use warnings;

my $string = join('x', ('a')x20);

my (@foo, $foo);

(@foo[0..18], $foo) = split('x', $string, 20);  # <-- added limit.
print "Success!\n" if $foo eq "a";

[download]

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Re^2: Is there any way to make an array non-greedy?
by thor (Priest) on Oct 14, 2005 at 18:25 UTC
    If my real problem were as easy as my toy script, I'd certainly follow one of your above solutions. However, it's more like this: 
    my (
      $field1,
      $field2,
      #...
      $field25,
      @field26[0..25],
      $field27,
      $field28,
      #...
   ) = split(/\|/);

    [download]
    This way, it makes it obvious that I'm grabbing a fixed number from the split return. I appreciate the terseness in your solutions, though. Now that I know that it was a problem with my test data and not my approach, I'll be using something like what I originally posted.

    thor

    Feel the white light, the light within
    Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will
    For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come

[reply]
[d/l]

      I think you're after something like this: 

      @important_fields = (split /\|/, $string)[25..50];

      [download]

      duff

[reply]
[d/l]

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