Re: Creating arrays with glob patterns without metacharacters

it could cause unintended and confusing side effects

It's of course a matter of opinion, but I do agree with this - it's a neat but somewhat obscure use of glob. It can be useful, as it allows one to generate combinations using just core Perl, without loading e.g. Algorithm::Combinatorics. But all it takes is someone who doesn't know the details ("If non-empty braces are the only wildcard characters used ...") or the interpolation of unchecked variables into the pattern for it to break. Personally, my feeling is that in a one-off script, or with a fixed string plus a comment warning future maintainers, it's ok to use. But if you want to play it safe with respect to future maintainers, I'd avoid it.

As for using <a b c> as a replacement for qw/a b c/, sure it's clever, but IMO it's a silly place to save two characters, and I'd probably recommend against it. Also, I like to use File::Glob ':bsd_glob';, which breaks it:

$ perl -le 'print for <a b c>'
a
b
c
$ perl -MFile::Glob=:bsd_glob -le 'print for <a b c>'
a b c
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Re^2: Creating arrays with glob patterns without metacharacters by Lotus1 (Vicar) on Jan 05, 2018 at 17:09 UTC
I also use `':bsd_glob'`. I could show how if I use a function someone else potentially creates using glob to create an array it would quit working with bsd_glob. Thanks. Update: demo code. `use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; use File::Glob ':bsd_glob'; my @arr1 = get_list1(); print Dumper(\@arr1); my @arr2 = get_list2(); print Dumper(\@arr2); sub get_list1 { return < abc def ghi >; } sub get_list2 { return qw( abc def ghi ); } __DATA__ $VAR1 = [ ' abc def ghi ' ]; $VAR1 = [ 'abc', 'def', 'ghi' ];` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^2: Creating arrays with glob patterns without metacharacters
by Lotus1 (Vicar) on Jan 05, 2018 at 17:09 UTC

I also use ':bsd_glob'. I could show how if I use a function someone else potentially creates using glob to create an array it would quit working with bsd_glob. Thanks.

Update: demo code.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use File::Glob ':bsd_glob';

my @arr1 = get_list1();
print Dumper(\@arr1);

my @arr2 = get_list2();
print Dumper(\@arr2);

sub get_list1 {
    return < abc def ghi >;
}
sub get_list2 {
    return qw( abc def ghi );
}

__DATA__

$VAR1 = [
          ' abc def ghi '
        ];
$VAR1 = [
          'abc',
          'def',
          'ghi'
        ];
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