Adding Values to a List with Splice() - Perl

We left off covering the splice() function, which can be used for adding and removing elements from a list. We also spoke about four other functions: pop(), push(), shift(), and unshift(), which are all similar to the splice() function, just not as flexible. In this article, we'll start out by discussing the splice() function in more detail, and learning how to remove more than one element in a list.

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By: James Payne

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March 31, 2008

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So far we have seen how to remove items from lists and replace items using the splice() function. In this section we will learn to simply add values. It works in a similar manner, only you change the number for the elements to remove to 0, like so:

#!/usr/bin/perl

@KoolAidFlavors = (@KoolAidFlavors, 'Grape ','Cherry ','Watermelon

','Fruit-Punch ','Orange ');

print @KoolAidFlavors;

print "\n\n";

splice(@KoolAidFlavors, 1,0,('Pomegranate ','Blueberry '));

print @KoolAidFlavors;

print "\n\n";

Here, instead of inserting and replacing the values Cherry and Watermelon with Pomegranate and Blueberry, we will append them to the table. In the line: splice(KoolAidFlavors,1,0,('Pomegranate ','Blueberry ')); we tell the program to insert the two values after the first element. Remember that the 0 tells the program not to replace any elements. If we had written 2,0 then the values would have been added after the second element, and so forth.

The result:

Grape Cherry Watermelon Fruit-Punch Orange

Grape Pomegranate Blueberry Cherry Watermelon Fruit-Punch Orange

And just as we can remove values in our @KoolAidFlavors list by using another list, so too, can we add them:

#!/usr/bin/perl

@KoolAidFlavors = (@KoolAidFlavors, 'Grape ','Cherry ','Watermelon

','Fruit-Punch ','Orange ');

@NewFlavors = ('Pomegranate ', 'Blueberry ');

print @KoolAidFlavors;

print "\n\n";

splice(@KoolAidFlavors, 1,0,(@NewFlavors));

print @KoolAidFlavors;