Re^2: Inserting an element into an array after a certain element

[Roy Johnson]

Maybe factor out the common $front in each return statement to make one return statement:

sub insert_after_first {
    return if @_ < 3;
    my ( $elem, $new, $front ) = splice @_, 0, 3;
    return ( $front,
             $front eq $elem
             ? ($new, @_ )
             : insert_after_first( $elem, $new, @_ )
           );
}

Update: Oo! In fact, you don't do anything with $new, except stick it back on the front of @_, so don't take it off:

sub insert_after_first {
    return if @_ < 3;
    my ( $elem, $front ) = (splice(@_, 0, 1), splice(@_, 1, 1));
    return ( $front,
             $front eq $elem
             ? @_
             : insert_after_first( $elem, @_ )
             );
}

Then, to change Lispish elegance to Perlish elegance (or madness), make your argument list the way you want it for the recursion, and use & without parentheses to recurse:

sub insert_after_first {
    return if @_ < 3;
    my $front = splice(@_, 2, 1);
    return ( $front,
             $front eq $_[0]
             ? @_[1..$#_]
             : &insert_after_first
       );
}

[kelan]

Getting a bit unreadable, though, I'd say. ;)