I agree with japhy on this one, simple things should be kept simple. Here is a variation on his get_index routine that combines his routine with other idioms mentioned in this node:

my $index = get_index(\@array, $element);

sub get_index {
  my ($a, $e) = @_;
  $e eq $a->[$_] and return $_ for 0..$#$a;
  return -1;
}
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