syntax error - WHERE?

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

Here is a bit of code, every character of which was cut-and-pasted straight from the Data::Dumper manpage (this is a filter to reverse-sort the keys of a hash):

sub my_filter {
   my ($hash) = @_;
   return [
      sort {$b <=> $a} keys %{$hash};    #Reverse sort
   ];
}
[download]

perl complains of a syntax error near "};" but I don't see it! My only change was tr/%$hash/%{$hash}/ (the Damian way), but it fails either way.

I seek enlightenment

Comment on syntax error - WHERE? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: syntax error - WHERE? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Feb 12, 2014 at 01:22 UTC
You have `[ sort {$b <=> $a} keys %{$hash}; ];`. Note the first semicolon (;) inside an anonymous array, which is a syntax error. 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". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: syntax error - WHERE? by toolic (Bishop) on Feb 12, 2014 at 01:29 UTC
every character of which was cut-and-pasted straight from the Data::Dumper manpage Apparently, the Data::Dumper POD has been fixed (that link is currently 5.18.0, but I don't see that code in 5.14.2 either). What version of perl do you have? Regardless, you have an answer, and the bug is no longer in the docs.	[reply]
Re: syntax error - WHERE? by LanX (Saint) on Feb 12, 2014 at 01:27 UTC
you can't insert a code-block within the array-literal, hence keep the semicolon out. `DB<106> @x= map {int rand 10 } 1..10 => (5, 5, 7, 6, 1, 5, 3, 5, 7, 7) DB<107> [ sort @x ] => [1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7] DB<108> [ sort @x; ] syntax error at (eval 59)[multi_perl5db.pl:644] line 2, at EOF` [download] if you need more than a simple statement use do { BLOCK }. update NB: the comment alone is no problem, cause it's ignored while parsing and not part of any statement `lanx@nc10-ubuntu:~$ perl -c sub my_filter { my ($hash) = @_; return [ sort {$b <=> $a} keys %{$hash} #Reverse sort ]; } - syntax OK` [download] Cheers Rolf ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)	[reply] [d/l] [select]

update