Fir a start that probably doesn't do what you mean. Consider:
use warnings;
use strict;
my $drink;
my $punter = 'coffee';
if($punter eq 'coffee'){ $drink = 'non alky'; }
if($punter eq 'beer'){ $drink = 'alky'; }
if($punter eq 'whisky'){ $drink = 'proper alky'; }
else { $drink = 'unknown'; }
print $drink;
Prints:
unknown
Better would be:
use warnings;
use strict;
my $drink;
my $punter = 'coffee';
if ('coffee' eq $punter){
$drink = 'non alky';
} elsif ('beer' eq $punter){
$drink = 'alky';
} elsif ('whisky' eq $punter) {
$drink = 'proper alky';
} else {
$drink = 'unknown';
}
print $drink;
which prints:
non alky
as expected. However probably better still would be:
use warnings;
use strict;
my %drinkType = ('coffee' => 'non alky', 'beer' => 'alky', 'whisky' =>
+ 'proper alky');
my $drink;
my $punter = 'coffee';
if (exists $drinkType{$punter}) {
$drink = $drinkType{$punter};
} else {
$drink = 'unknown';
}
print $drink;
If you have more work to do for each if clause you could:
use warnings;
use strict;
my %drinkType = ('coffee' => \&doNonalky, 'beer' => \&doAlky, 'whisky'
+ => \&doProperAlky);
my $drink;
my $punter = 'coffee';
if (exists $drinkType{$punter}) {
$drinkType{$punter}->();
} else {
print 'unknown';
}
sub doNonalky {
print 'non alky';
}
sub doAlky {
print 'alky';
}
sub doProperAlky {
print 'proper alky';
}
DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel