Re: Chomp(<handle>)

The first error is because it can't choose between chomp SCALAR or chomp ARRAY usage. Should it slurp the whole file into an array and chomp that? Or should it slurp one line and chomp that? Using a named intermediary lvalue gives it the proper context to make such choices.

The second error is what you expected it to return. From (perldoc -f chomp), "It returns the total number of characters removed from all its arguments." So @row gets one element, which is '1'.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

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Re: Re: Chomp(<handle>) by dws (Chancellor) on Jul 14, 2003 at 18:06 UTC
The first error is because it can't choose between chomp SCALAR or chomp ARRAY usage. No, the first error is because he's "passing" something to `chomp()` that can't be modified in place. Try `chomp(" foo ");` [download] It's clearly a SCALAR, yet it won't work.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Chomp(<handle>) by halley (Prior) on Jul 14, 2003 at 19:09 UTC
`$ perl -e 'chomp(" foo ");' Can't modify constant item in chomp at - line 1, near "" foo ")"` [download] `$ perl -e 'chomp(<STDIN>);' Can't modify <HANDLE> in chomp at - line 1, near "<STDIN>)"` [download] Different error messages. In the first case, it complains about modifying a non-lvalue (a constant item). In the second case, it complains about modifying the results of reading from a file handle. I'll grant you that `chomp SCALAR` can't chomp a non-lvalue, if you'll grant that the ambiguous context of the syntax `chomp <FOO>` is another valid reason that the compiler gives a separate distinct message. -- `[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Chomp(<handle>) by dws (Chancellor) on Jul 14, 2003 at 19:23 UTC
In the second case, it complains about modifying the results of reading from a file handle. Care to place a small wager on that? I could be wrong. You might make a buck.	[reply]
Re: Re^3: Chomp(<handle>) by edan (Curate) on Jul 15, 2003 at 11:31 UTC
I disagree. They are the same error message: `Can't modify %s in %s` (see `perldoc perldiag`, search for modify) `chomp` can only modify an lvalue, and neither a 'constant item' nor '<filehandle>' are lvalues, just as dws said. -- 3dan	[reply]