In Perl, arguments are passed by reference, not by value. This is what perlsub means when it says: “The array @_ is a local array, but its elements are aliases for the actual scalar parameters.”

The subroutine call a($x && $y) causes the Perl interpreter to evaluate the boolean expression $x && $y to determine which variable is to be aliased. If $x is false, the expression short-circuits, so a reference to $x is passed in to the sub; but if $x is true, short-circuiting does not occur, and so it is a reference to $y that is passed in to the sub.

So it is misleading to say that the boolean expression works as an l-value. Within sub a, the boolean expression is never seen — only the reference to either $x or $y — and it is this reference which works as an l-value.

I haven’t found anything in the documentation to explain the process by which Perl derives a reference (“alias”) from a complex expression given as an argument to a subroutine. It might be useful to know — but, in general, it’s safer and clearer to keep things simple and just pass a variable or a value.

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

In reply to Re: Why Perl boolean expression sometimes treated as lvalue? by Athanasius
in thread Why Perl boolean expression sometimes treated as lvalue? by vsespb

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.