% perldoc List::Util

first BLOCK LIST
           Similar to "grep" in that it evaluates BLOCK setting $_ to each
           element of LIST in turn. "first" returns the first element where
           the result from BLOCK is a true value. If BLOCK never returns true
           or LIST was empty then "undef" is returned.

               $foo = first { defined($_) } @list    # first defined value in @list
               $foo = first { $_ > $value } @list    # first value in @list which
                                                     # is greater than $value