my $line = "1!2!3!4!5!6!7!8!9";
my @arr = split /!/, $line;
my @indices = (2,5..8); #just remember indexing starts at 0.
print join(" : ", @arr);#original
print "\n";
print join(" : ", @arr[2,5..8]);#explicit
print "\n";
print join(" : ", @arr[@indices]);#predefined


##</code><code>##

1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9
3 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9
3 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9

##</code><code>##

my $line = "1!2!3!4!5!6!7!8!9";
my @arr = split /!/, $line;
my @exclude = (2,5..8); #just remember indexing starts at 0.

#set the elements to nothing and then filter them out.
@arr[@exclude] = ();
@arr = grep $_, @arr;