I guess a few things got mixed together in this thread.

@output = map{some code}@input;
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In older versions of Perl the @output will be created whether you give it a name like: @output or not. In other words there will be some @some_anon_thing for which you don't know the "name". I understand this has been fixed as of 5.10. So a version like Perl 5.6 has a "penalty" for a bare map.

On the style issue, I use map{} for short transformations where I use the output of the map{}, maybe @$aref or some such thing. If it gets hairy, I use a foreach(). I personally don't use "bare" map{}'s as a shorthand foreach(). Now doing so is completely legal and so certainly doesn't rise to the level of "hey that's wrong"! I prefer foreach in those situations partly because I have the thing we are looping over right there at the start of the statement and also that since I use map in consistent style, I can see immediately that we are going some kind of transformation, deg F to deg C or whatever. Also Perl is terse enough that I don't see the need to save a few characters by "bare" map vs foreach. Now sometimes the situation arises where I use a map{} within a foreach, like foreach (map{...}@input), but that is using the output of the map and fits with the short transformation idea.

I am sure that others have different opinions. I've tried to explain what I do and why - I hope that was understandable and appears rational and consistent. I'm not the "code police".

Coding has a lot of "art" to it. And there are all kind of exceptions for every "rule".

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