use warnings;
use strict;

my @array;

while (my $list = <DATA>) {

    # Remove trailing white-space, no need for chomp
    $list =~ s/\s+$//;  
    
    # If the data is coming from a file (like this), 
    # then you don't need to test defined
    
    if (defined $list and $list) {
        push(@array, $list);
    }

}

print "@array\n";

__DATA__
a

b 
c 

d 

a
a
c

d
c