Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!ogicse!intelhf!agora!markb
From: markb@agora.uucp (Mark Biggar)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Possible problem with syscall()
Message-ID: <1990Dec1.185101.6489@agora.uucp>
Date: 1 Dec 90 18:51:01 GMT
References: <1454@tharr.UUCP> <10543@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Lines: 19

In article <10543@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes:
>In article <1454@tharr.UUCP> gustav@tharr.UUCP (Paul Moore) writes:
>: There appears to be a problem with syscall() in perl. When perl is working
>: out whether an argument is a string or an integer, it decides by working out
>: whether the argument looks like a number. But what about the *string* "1"?
>
>No, it doesn't decide by whether it looks like a number, exactly.  It decides
>by whether the value has ever been evaluated in a numeric context.  The
>literal string "1" has never been evaluated in a numeric context, so
>should be treated as a string.  If you have a string value of "1" in a
>variable, but have evaluated it as a number (such as by comparing it using ==),
>then it will be treated as a number.

Note: you can force the variable $x to be a string for syscall by passing
$x.'' as the argument, $x+0 can be used to force it to be a number.

--
Perl's maternal uncle
Mark Biggar


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