in reply to I need some wisdom. How do I pack an array to a set length.

my @a = $x; push @a, @b for 1..$x;
or
my @a = ( $x, map { @b } 1..$x );
or
my @a = ( $x, (@b) x $x );

The inner parens are required since "()x" is different than just "x".