Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
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From: flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee)
Subject: Re: two perl questions
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References: <JBRYANS.91Jun6175843@beach.csulb.edu>
	<1991Jun7.163638.7834@iWarp.intel.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1991 04:13:50 GMT
Lines: 31

>Array can be forced by putting it into a list, or by assigning into
>an array.

"putting it into a list" is not quite enough.  Perl has the real
problem that lists are indistinguishable from the comma operator.
	$x = (5, 10);
	print "$x\n";
	$x = @x = (5, 10);
	print "$x\n";

What if you want the last word from a split()?  This:
	$x = split(' ', 'a b c');
returns the number of split items.  This:
	@x = split(' ', 'a b c');
	$x = $x[$#x];
works, but requires a temporary array.

Do you think this works?
	$x = (0, split(' ', 'a b c'));
How about this?
	sub i1 { @_; }
	$x = &i1(split(' ', 'a b c'));
And this?
	sub i2 { return @_; }
	$x = &i2(split(' ', 'a b c'));
Do you understand the difference between &i1 and &i2?  I certainly
don't.

Let's hear it for experimental programming.
--
Felix Lee	flee@cs.psu.edu