Random Password Generation in Perl

sub randomPassword {
my $password;
my $_rand;

my $password_length = $_[0];
    if (!$password_length) {
        $password_length = 10;
    }

my @chars = split(" ",
    "a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
    p q r s t u v w x y z - _ % #
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9");

srand;
 
for (my $i=0; $i <= $password_length ;$i++) {
    $_rand = int(rand 41);
    $password .= $chars[$_rand];
}
return $password;
}