splice is indeed the way to go. Also, what you're doing with:

    push @array_segment, shift @array if defined $array[0];
[download]

isn't really right, because what if the first element of @array is undef itself? You wanted this:

    push @array_segment, shift @array if @array;
[download]

That's also more idiomatic, because you're saying "if there are more elements in the array" rather than "if the first element is undef".

But the splice is the way to go.