Update: made 0-safe

But still not undef-safe. ;-)

print shift @array while @array;
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... which is about the silliest code I've ever written. Sheesh, what's with these arbitrary limitations? :)

Right, the correct solution checks @array, not the returned item.

You've already been shown how to make your code work with all values including undef.

while (@array) {
   my $item = shift(@array);
   print "$item\n";
}
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If you wanted safe code that didn't refer to the array twice, you could use splice in a list assignment.

while (my ($item) = splice(@array, 0, 1)) {
   print "$item\n";
}
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The parens on the LHS of the assignment are crucial to force a list context. The result of a list assignment in list context is the number of list elements assigned (no matter if the element(s) are true or false).

BTW there is no PERL, just perl (the interpreter) and Perl (the language)

AIUI, the reverse is true; Perl is the interpreter and perl is the language

/pedant

No, moritz was correct according to the FAQ.