Re^2: Perl: Split/format the output and append it to an array

[GrandFather]

For the most part if you find yourself writing significant code in a map, use a for loop instead. Your 7 line confusing map requiring multiple comments becomes:

for my $xlink (@xlinks) {
    push @xlinkpaths, $1 if $xlink =~ /xlink (.+?) /;
}

Although you could instead write it:

@xlinkpaths = map {/xlink (.+?) / ? $1 : ()} @xlinks;

[Anonymous Monk]

or even

@xlinkpaths = map /xlink (.+?)/, @xlinks;

you think you're getting undefs (but you're not in this case)? simply prepend  grep defined,  map ...

[Eily]

Well, yes, you are right. Actually I started with the short version that Anonymous Monk gave, and I thought it would be confusing for someone not used to reading that sort of things. I should have gone for your first solution when I wanted to make it more verbose.