my @digitsOfPi = (3,1,4,1,5,9,2,6,5,3,5,9,'etc'); frobnicate('foo', 'bar', @digitsOfPi); sub frobnicate { my $fooString = shift; my $barString = shift @_; #more typing my @remainder = @_; print $remainder[0] == 3 ? 'yum' :'eew'; }