in reply to While issues

The code in your update is functionally different than your original code. Did you mean to go from finding one non-empty element to two? (original: $cnr < 1 vs new: $cnr <= 1).

Also, it loops more than necessary. The following fixes this and simplifies the code: 

my $cnr = 2;
for my $xda ( shuffle 0 .. $total ) {
    if ( defined $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ] ) {
        $aob[$x][$y] = $z + $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ];
        last if --$cnr == 0;
   }
}

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Or if you mean to only find one non-empty element: 

for my $xda ( shuffle 0 .. $total ) {
    if ( defined $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ] ) {
        $aob[$x][$y] = $z + $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ];
        last;
   }
}

[download]

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Re^2: While issues
by Dandello (Monk) on Feb 03, 2011 at 16:36 UTC

    Your initial solution was SO much better than mine. So that's the one I'm using.

    I needed to find the first random non-blank element. Using shuffle worked, but I was looking for a neater and simpler way.

    Again, thank you.

    My final - 

            while (1) {
            my $xda = int rand $total + 1;
            if ( defined $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ] ) {
                $aob[$x][$y] = $z + $aob[$xda][ $y - 1 ];
                last;
            }
        }

    [download]
    . Using 'defined' is actually better in this case than using "" or q{}. No warnings.

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