my %ignorables = map { $_ => 1 } qw([notice mpmstats: rdy bsy rd wr ka
+ log dns cls bsy: in);  

open my $error_fh, '<', 'iset_error_log';   

sub findLines {
    # Iterates over the lines in the file, putting each into $_ 
    my @all_lines;
    while (<$error_fh>) {      
        
        # Only worry about the lines containing [notice     
        if (/\[notice/) {          
            
            if (/\brdy\b/){
                print "\n";
            }
            else {
                print ",";
            }
            
     
            my @line = grep { not defined $ignorables{$_} } split /\s+
+/;          
            
            # Cleanup         
            s/|^\[|notice|[]]//g for @line; # remove [ from [foo   
            
            # Output the line         
            @line = join(",", @line);          
            s/,,/,/g for @line;
            print @line; #this is where I would like to return the arr
+ay.
                        push @all_lines, @lines;
            }
        } 
        return @all_lines; # outside of while loop
    }  

&findLines;

close $error_fh;
[download]

I don't know exactly what you're trying to do here. However, this may be more what you want:

$line = join(',', @line);          
$line =~ s/,,/,/g;
push @all_lines, $line;
[download]

I get the output:

,
,
,
,
,
,
,

,
,

,
,

,
,
,
,
,



,
,
,

,
,
,
,

,

,
,
,
,


,
,
,
,
,
,

,
,

,
,
,
,
,
,Mon,Jun,25,02:19:09,2012,999,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,02:19:09,2012,1,
+mod_was_ap22_http.cMon,Jun,25,02:21:09,2012,999,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,
+25,02:21:09,2012,1,mod_was_ap22_http.cMon,Jun,25,02:25:10,2012,999,1,
+0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,02:25:10,2012,1,mod_was_ap22_http.cMon,Jun,25,0
+2:56:10,2012,999,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,02:56:10,2012,1,mod_sm22.cpp
+Mon,Jun,25,03:00:10,2012,999,1,1,0,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,03:08:10,2012,99
+9,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,03:08:10,2012,1,mod_sm22.cppMon,Jun,25,03:1
+0:10,2012,999,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,03:10:10,2012,1,mod_was_ap22_ht
+tp.cMon,Jun,25,03:24:11,2012,999,1,0,1,0,0,0,0Mon,Jun,25,03:24:11,201
+2,1,mod_was_ap22_http.cMon,
[download]

Since you did not provide your input file, we can not run your code to reproduce your results. You will have to resort to debugging your code on your own.

First of all please try to follow basic guidelines in your code.

• Check if open() actually worked.
• Use consistent indentation to make the codeflow easier to follow (perltidy can do this for you).
• You should use strict; use warning;
• For better scoping, put open and close within the sub
• Subs are generally called like findLines();
• Use named variables instead of the implicit $_

Here's some pseudo-code on how to return an array:

use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

sub findLines {
    open(my $error_fh, '<', 'iset_error_log') or die($!);
    my @lines;
    while((my $line = <$error_fh>)) {
  
        next unless($line =~ /\[notice/); skipp all lines except notic
+e

        # yada, do something to $line

        push @lines, $line;
    }

    close($error_fh);
    return @lines;
}

my @found = findLines();
print Dumper(\@found);
[download]

To be more memory efficient, you could also return a reference to the array, like this:

    # .....
    close($error_fh);
    return \@lines;
}

my $found = findLines();
print Dumper($found);
[download]