I don't have the indices of the array elements, I would just have the values. And I am under the impression that slicing only works when you have the indices, not the values. Besides, if I am looking for any $x where
$x <= $upperlimit && $x >= $lowerlimit
I don't actually know that $upperlimit corresponds to a value in the array.

So, I'm not sure that that accomplishes what you think it does.

Also, as for my early exits, I realized break was the wrong command, and last seems to be doing the trick I wanted..

Thanks,
Matt

Consider this example code:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @bigarray = ( # Think @{$matches{$element}{$sitekey}}
    1 .. 15, 21 .. 100, 200 .. 2000, 2010 .. 2015
    );

test (1, 12);
test (10, 20);
test (18, 25);
test (2000, 3000);


sub test {
    my $lowIndex = BinSearch ($_[0], \&cmpFunc, \@bigarray) + 0.5;
    my $highIndex = BinSearch ($_[1], \&cmpFunc, \@bigarray);
    my @arrayA = @bigarray[$lowIndex..$highIndex];
    
    print "$_[0] - $_[1]: [$lowIndex .. $highIndex]: @arrayA\n";
}


sub cmpFunc {
    $_[0] <=> $_[1];
}


sub BinSearch {
    my ($target, $cmp, $array) = @_;
    my $posmin = 0;
    my $posmax = $#$array;
    
    return -0.5 if $cmp->($array->[0], $target) > 0;
    return $#$array + 0.5 if &$cmp ($array->[-1], $target) < 0;
    
    while (1) {
        my $mid = int (($posmin + $posmax) / 2);
        my $result = $cmp->($array->[$mid], $target);
        
        if ($result < 0) {
            $posmin = $posmax, next if $mid == $posmin && $posmax != $
+posmin;
            return $mid + 0.5 if $mid == $posmin;
            $posmin = $mid;
        } elsif ($result > 0) {
            $posmax = $posmin, next if $mid == $posmax && $posmax != $
+posmin;
            return $mid - 0.5 if $mid == $posmax;
            $posmax = $mid;
        } else {
            return $mid;
        }
    }
}
[download]

Prints:

1 - 12: [0 .. 11]: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
10 - 20: [9 .. 14.5]: 10 11 12 13 14 15
18 - 25: [15 .. 19]: 21 22 23 24 25
2000 - 3000: [1895 .. 1901.5]: 2000 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
[download]

In your context you would do something like:

my $lowIndex = BinSearch ($lowerlimit, sub {$_[0] <=> $_[1]}, $matches
+{$element}{$sitekey}) + 0.5;
my $highIndex = BinSearch ($upperlimit, sub {$_[0] <=> $_[1]}, $matche
+s{$element}{$sitekey});
my @arrayA = @{$matches{$element}{$sitekey}}[$lowIndex..$highIndex];
[download]

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DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel