Odd splice behavior between perl/OS versions

SimonSaysCake has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I was recently working with Perl's splice function and ran into an anomaly. In this case I was testing on Windows via WAMP running ActiveState Perl ver. v5.16.3. Everything looked good but when I ran the same code on one of our Linux severs (RedHat), this one running Perl ver. v5.10.1 (yes, it's old and someday it will no longer be), I got a different result which really surprised me. Here is the code in question and the different outputs:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @stuff = qw(one two three four five six seven eight nine ten);
print "Before:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n";
splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1));
splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1));
splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1));
print "\nAfter:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n";
exit 1;
[download]

On my Windows 10 workstation with Perl v5.16.3 I get what I expect:

Before:

one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten

After:

one,two,three,seven,eight,nine,ten,four,five,six
[download]

But on the Linux box with Perl v5.10.1 I get something else:

Before:

one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten

After:

one,two,three,seven,eight,nine,four,five,six,ten
[download]

Our other Linux server (Ubuntu) is running Perl ver. v5.14.2 and the test script's output on that box is the same as my Windows 10/WAMP output so it would seem to be, at least in part, a Perl version issue.

I searched here and Googled around and was surprised not find anything about this. The only reference to a change in splice's behavior that I found is regarding allowing it to accept an array ref for its EXPR argument starting with 5.14. That's considered experimental behavior and doesn't apply here since I've chosen not to use refs.

Any idea why the change in behavior? Bug? Thanks for any insight you can offer.

-Simon

Comment on Odd splice behavior between perl/OS versions Select or Download Code

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Re: Odd splice behavior between perl/OS versions by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Oct 28, 2016 at 19:14 UTC
Between 5.10.0 and 5.12.0 the way `$#array` is handled in rvalue context changed. In lvalue context, that expression returns a magic value which, when assigned to, updates the array's length. In 5.10.0, a similar magical value was also returned in rvalue context, which delayed evaluation of the array's length until the second (left-most) split was being done. In 5.12.0 onwards, the rvalue `$#array` expression is evaluated immediately. This appears to be intentional: `commit 02d85cc37a4acecafdc2f0b45640b03cd1f4ac71 Author: Eric Brine <ikegami@adaelis.com> AuthorDate: Fri Oct 23 19:05:40 2009 -0400 Avoid adding magic with rvalue $#a` [download] Dave.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Odd splice behavior between perl/OS versions (undefined) by tye (Sage) on Oct 28, 2016 at 19:14 UTC
The behavior depends on the order in which different parts of the operation are done. If this were C code, then it would be labeled "undefined behavior". Since it is Perl code, the strict meaning of that phrase from the C standard doesn't quite apply. But it is the type of behavior that is the most likely to end up changing when mundane maintenance is done on Perl's source code, including optimizations. I believe the crux of the difference is whether you get the value of `$#stuff` passed to the outer instance of splice from before or after the inner instance of splice has removed `$stuff[3]`. Though I can also imagine more complex ways that a simple optimization, bug fix, or just reworking of Perl's code could cause your code to behave differently. Avoid changing `@stuff` in multiple ways in a single expression and using values like `$#stuff` from within an expression where that value is changed. - tye	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Odd splice behavior between perl/OS versions by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Oct 28, 2016 at 19:00 UTC
If it helps, 5.10.1 on windows produces the same results as on linux: `C:\test>perl #!/usr/local/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @stuff = qw(one two three four five six seven eight nine ten); print "Before:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n"; splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); print "\nAfter:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n"; exit 1; ^Z Before: one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten After: one,two,three,seven,eight,nine,four,five,six,ten` [download] Which is different from 5.22 on the same machine: C:\test>\perl22\bin\perl.exe #!/usr/local/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @stuff = qw(one two three four five six seven eight nine ten); print "Before:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n"; splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); splice(@stuff, $#stuff, 0, splice(@stuff, 3, 1)); print "\nAfter:\n\n", join(",", @stuff), "\n"; ^Z Before: one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten After: one,two,three,seven,eight,nine,ten,four,five,six [download] So it seems to be down to version alone rather than platform. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". I knew I was on the right track :) In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l] [select]


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