Problem Statement

This task is about writing a computer program that has long literals   (character literals that may require specifying the words/tokens on more than one (source) line,   either with continuations or some other method, such as abutments or concatenations   (or some other mechanisms).

The literal is to be in the form of a "list",   a literal that contains many words (tokens) separated by a blank (space),   in this case   (so as to have a common list),   the (English) names of the chemical elements of the periodic table.

The list is to be in (ascending) order of the (chemical) element's atomic number: ... up to the last known (named) chemical element   (at this time).

Do not include any of the   "unnamed"   chemical element names such as:

To make computer programming languages comparable,   the statement widths should be restricted to less than   81   bytes (characters),   or less if a computer programming language has more restrictive limitations or standards. Also mention what column the programming statements can start in if   not   in column one.

The list   may   have leading/embedded/trailing blanks during the declaration   (the actual program statements),   this is allow the list to be more readable.   The "final" list shouldn't have any leading/trailing or superfluous blanks   (when stored in the program's "memory"). This list should be written with the idea in mind that the program   will   be updated,   most likely someone other than the original author,   as there will be newer (discovered) elements of the periodic table being added   (possibly in the near future).   These future updates should be one of the primary concerns in writing these programs and it should be "easy" for someone else to add chemical elements to the list   (within the computer program). Attention should be paid so as to not exceed the   clause length   of continued or specified statements,   if there is such a restriction.   If the limit is greater than (say) 4,000 bytes or so,   it needn't be mentioned here.

Show all output here, on this page.

Let's start with the solution:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict; # https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Long_literals,_with_continuations
use warnings;

my $longliteral = join ' ', split ' ', <<END;
hydrogen helium lithium beryllium boron carbon nitrogen oxygen fluorine
neon sodium magnesium aluminum silicon phosphorous sulfur chlorine argon
potassium calcium scandium titanium vanadium chromium manganese iron cobalt
nickel copper zinc gallium germanium arsenic selenium bromine krypton rubidium
strontium yttrium zirconium niobium molybdenum technetium ruthenium rhodium
palladium silver cadmium indium tin antimony tellurium iodine xenon cesium
barium lanthanum cerium praseodymium neodymium promethium samarium europium
gadolinium terbium dysprosium holmium erbium thulium ytterbium lutetium hafnium
tantalum tungsten rhenium osmium iridium platinum gold mercury thallium lead
bismuth polonium astatine radon francium radium actinium thorium protactinium
uranium neptunium plutonium americium curium berkelium californium einsteinium
fermium mendelevium nobelium lawrencium rutherfordium dubnium seaborgium
bohrium hassium meitnerium darmstadtium roentgenium copernicium nihonium
flerovium moscovium livermorium tennessine oganesson
END

my $version = 'Tue Feb  2 22:30:48 UTC 2021';
my $count = my @elements = split ' ', $longliteral;
my $last = $elements[-1];

print <<END;
      version: $version
element count: $count
 last element: $last
END