What does q{} mean?

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

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Re: What does q{} mean? by stevieb (Canon) on May 19, 2016 at 18:19 UTC
`q{}` is the operator for a single-quoted string. In this case, it's the empty string: `''`. See perlop's quote and quote-like operators. eg: `perl -E "say 'match' if q{} eq ''" match` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: What does q{} mean? by Eily (Monsignor) on May 19, 2016 at 18:27 UTC
++stevieb This is also one of the cases where B::Deparse can help: `perl -MO=Deparse -e 'print q{}'` yields `print ''; -e syntax OK` [download] The print statement is there to avoid the value being in void context and optimized away.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: What does q{} mean? by Old_Gray_Bear (Bishop) on May 19, 2016 at 22:15 UTC
A Google search (note: 'Google' is not a verb, it is a trade marked name like Kleenex or Xerox) isn't the right tool for this job. Try `perldoc -f q` for the real scoop on the q function. ---- I Go Back to Sleep, Now. OGB	[reply] [d/l]
Re: What does q{} mean? by choroba (Cardinal) on May 20, 2016 at 11:43 UTC
See also Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitEmptyQuotes. In some fonts, '' and " are hard to distinguish. ($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-\|\|-\|5+lengthSq)`"S\|oS2"`map{chr \|+ord }map{substrSq`S_+\|`\|}3E\|-\|`7**2-3:)=~y+S\|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a, [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: What does q{} mean? by hippo (Archbishop) on May 20, 2016 at 12:52 UTC
In some fonts, '' and " are hard to distinguish. In which case might I humbly suggest that those fonts are entirely unsuitable for use in programming? See which fonts are popular for ideas regarding replacements.	[reply]