# Longer and less efficient than join(), but illustrates
# Perl's foreach operator, which can be useful for
# less trivial problems with lists

@list = ('Apple', 'Banana', 'Carrot');
foreach $fruit (@list) {
print "$fruit,";
}
print "\n";

my @a = qw/Apple Banana Carrot/;
{
local $, = ", ";
print @a
}
print "\n";

my @a = qw/Apple Banana Carrot/;
{
local $" = ", ";
print "@a\n";
}

sub myjoin {
if ($#_ < 2) {
return join ' and ', @_;
} else {
return join(', ', @_[0..$#_-1]) . ' and ' . $_[-1];
}
}

# Note: I don't think this meets the spec --Geoff

# Previous "myjoin()" responses don't meet the spec of including
# the final comma before the "and" if the list has more than
# two elements...this is one way to meet that spec...it may
# not be the most efficient...

sub AnotherMyJoin {
my @list = @_;

if ($#list == -1) {return}
elsif ($#list == 0) {return $list[0]}
elsif ($#list == 1) {return $list[0].' and '.$list[1]}
else {
return join(", ", @list[0..$#list - 1]) . ', and '. $list[$#list];
}
}

# This is the long way, but it's kind of fun
# It illustrates the use of Perl's reverse()
# operator to work our way through the list
# elements backwards...I wrote this one before
# getting smart and looking at some of the other
# algorithms from the other languages. Still,
# it is only 12 lines of code vs 9 for my other
# solution if you disregard the comments.

sub myjoin {
my @list = reverse(@_); # Reverse original order of elements
my $retval;

# Make our exit here if we were passed an empty list
if ($#list == -1) {return}

# Loop through reversed elements in end-to-start order
for (0..$#list) {
# Add the reversed form of each element plus a space char
$retval .= reverse($list[$_]).' ';

# Add 'and' to lists with two or more elements
# placing it in between final and 'next to final'
$retval .= "dna " if ($#list > 0 and $_== 0);

# Add ',' to each element as long as there are more
# than two elements and the current element isn't the
# final element
$retval .= "," if ($#list > 1 and $_ != $#list);
}

# Remove what will end up as an extraneous leading space
chop($retval);

# Done looping, now reverse things back into correct order and return
$retval = reverse($retval);
return($retval);
}

# Yes, this doesn't meet the spec, the spec is flawed
# the serial comma (Oxford comma) is not required in a list
sub english_join {
return join(', ', @_[0..$#_-1])
. ($#_ ? ' and ' : '' )
. $_[-1];
}

@letters = qw(a b c);
@numbers = (4, 5);

for $number (@numbers) {
for $letter (@letters) {
push @list, [$letter, $number];
}
}