for my $i (0..$#array) {
  if ($array[$i] eq "joby") {
    splice(@array, $i, 1);
    last; # exit loop - only interested in the first match
  }
}
[download]

foreach my $name (@array){
    print "$name ";
    if($name eq 'joby'){
        shift(@array);
        print "deleted\n";
        next;
    }
    print "ok\n";
}
[download]

Your problem is that you're modifying the array you're iterating over.  Just don't do that with a foreach loop :)

(This issue comes up from time to time, so if you search this site you should find rather extensive related discussion... (e.g. self-feeding infinite loop))

To weed an array, use grep. To make your desired deletion from @array,

To get your desired output while deleting, I recommend printf in the grep block:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = ("joby", "andy", "ben", "tom", "bob");

sub ok {$_ ne 'joby'}

print "start\n";
print map {"$_\n"} @array;

print "\nmiddle\n";
my $fmt = "%s %s\n";
@array = grep {    
    my $ok = ok();
    printf $fmt, $_, $ok? 'ok': 'deleted';
    $ok;
} @array;

print "\nend\n";
print map {"$_\n"} @array;
[download]

Thanks for all the help guys, the real code is part of a huge loop processing all sorts of stuff, I'll do the check and modify the array before I hit the main loop.

thanks again!

If you just want to test and remove the first element of an array then you don't need a loop:

my @array = qw( joby andy ben tom bob );

print "start\n";
for my $name ( @array ) {
    print "$name\n";
}

print "\nmiddle\n";
shift @array and print "deleted\n" if $array[ 0 ] eq 'joby';

print "\nend\n";
for my $name ( @array ) {
    print "$name\n";
}
[download]

you don't need a loop

I guess the program doesn't need to loop through an array if the program author has already looked the array over and seen that the stated criterion only applies to the first element. By the same reasoning, you don't need shift:

my @array = qw( joby andy ben tom bob );

print "start\n";
for my $name ( @array ) {
    print "$name\n";
}

print "\nmiddle\n";
print "deleted the first element because it was 'joby'\n";

@array = qw( andy ben tom bob );
print "\nend\n";
for my $name ( @array ) {
    print "$name\n";
}
[download]