From anno5@me.com

The description of C<delete> in perlfunc.pod says​:

  ...
  However, if all deleted elements fall at the end of an array,
  the array's size shrinks to the position of the highest element
  that still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do.
  ...

This isn't quite correct. It isn't required for all deletions to be at the end of the string, shrinking happens if any of them are. I'd also add a sentence that gives the rationale for this seemingly unsystematic behavior. I suggest to change the passage to read (patch attached)

  However, if any deleted elements fall at the end of an array,
  the array's size shrinks to the position of the highest element
  that still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do. In other words, an
  array won't have trailing nonexistent elements after a delete.

From anno5@me.com

patch

From @tonycoz

On Thu Apr 17 11​:50​:30 2014, anno5@​me.com wrote​:

However, if any deleted elements fall at the end of an array,
the array's size shrinks to the position of the highest element
that still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do. In other
words, an
array won't have trailing nonexistent elements after a delete.

That looks good to me.

I'll apply it post 5.20.

Attached is a git format-patch as I plan to apply it, using your email from the AUTHORS file instead of from this ticket. If you want that changed, please let me know.

Tony

From @tonycoz

From d69d48cf2a4a44e0544d0b8dc04948c6474802f9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Anno Siegel <anno4000@lublin.zrz.tu-berlin.de>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 10:16:07 +1000
Subject: [perl #121681] fix documentation of delete at the end of an array

---
 pod/perlfunc.pod |    5 +++--
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pod/perlfunc.pod b/pod/perlfunc.pod
index 9a5ee74..0cc1e9a 100644
--- a/pod/perlfunc.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfunc.pod
@@ -1368,9 +1368,10 @@ in their corresponding positions.
 delete() may also be used on arrays and array slices, but its behavior is less
 straightforward.  Although exists() will return false for deleted entries,
 deleting array elements never changes indices of existing values; use shift()
-or splice() for that.  However, if all deleted elements fall at the end of an
+or splice() for that.  However, if any deleted elements fall at the end of an
 array, the array's size shrinks to the position of the highest element that
-still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do.
+still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do. In other words, an
+array won't have trailing nonexistent elements after a delete.
 
 B<WARNING:> Calling delete on array values is deprecated and likely to
 be removed in a future version of Perl.
-- 
1.7.10.4

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

From @tonycoz

On Sun Apr 20 17​:24​:06 2014, tonyc wrote​:

On Thu Apr 17 11​:50​:30 2014, anno5@​me.com wrote​:

However, if any deleted elements fall at the end of an array,
the array's size shrinks to the position of the highest element
that still tests true for exists(), or to 0 if none do. In other
words, an
array won't have trailing nonexistent elements after a delete.

That looks good to me.

I'll apply it post 5.20.

Attached is a git format-patch as I plan to apply it, ...

Ricardo approved this for pre-5.20 on IRC last night[1], applied as deaf6ad.

[1] from the perspective of GMT+1000

@tonycoz - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'