Well, first of all - your array as you have it produces an error:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @array = ('dave', 'brian','alex's','eddie's');

print "@array\n";
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If we try to execute that, we get:

String found where operator expected at array.pl line 4, at end of lin
+e
        (Missing semicolon on previous line?)
syntax error at array.pl line 4, near "'alex's','eddie's"
Can't find string terminator "'" anywhere before EOF at array.pl line 
+4.
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A better way to define your array is like so:

my @array = qw(dave brian alex's eddie's);
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Which gives us the correct output:

barney:/home/darren/perlmonks# perl array.pl
dave brian alex's eddie's
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An explaination of the use of qw can be found under the "Regexp Quote-Like Operators" section in perlop

Hope this helps,
Darren :)