Remove array element by value

[rob51383]

Is it possible to remove an array element by its actual value. For instance:

$input_Color=Green;
@array=(Red,Blue,Green,Yellow,Black);
splice(@array,$input_Color);

The problem is I do not know the value of $input_Color, and I would not know the index of which element to remove without creating a bunch of IF statements or cycling it through a loop (Which I am currently doing)

 

[KevinADC]

One way:

my $input_Color = 'Green';
my @array = qw(Red Blue Green Yellow Black);
@array = grep {!/$input_Color/} @array;
print "@array";

 

[KevinADC]

another way without using a regexp:

my $input_Color = 'Green';
my @array = qw(Red Blue Green Yellow Black);
@array = grep {$_ ne $input_Color} @array;
print "@array";

 

[mikevh]

I'd go with the second way.

@array = grep {$_ ne $input_Color} @array;

The first way using a regex as given tries to match $input_color anywhere in each of the elements of @array. So, for example, if @array looks like this:

my @array = qw(Red Blue [b]Green Greenish-Blue Bluish-Green[/b] Yellow Black);

the regex method would eliminate Greenish-Blue and Bluish-Green from the array along with Green.

To make the regex method work as I think you intend, you'd have to use anchors, and say

@array = grep {!/[b]^[/b]$input_Color[b]$[/b]/} @array;

which will force the regex to match each element in its entirety, rather than matching anywhere within each element.

Why bother with that, though? {$_ ne $input_color} is better.

 

[rharsh]

Any particular reason you couldn't go with a hash instead of an array? If order matters, it would take some doing to get it working right. For small lists, like the examples, it wouldn't make much of a difference and probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

But if you're playing with a large list, every time you want to remove an item by using grep, it iterates through every member of the array. A hash might not work for your situation, but it would make deleting individual members a bit easier because you can directly address the members..

Just a thought.