Hello i255d, and welcome to the Monastery!

Yes, this is one of many places where Perl uses the special $_ variable implicitly, making it easier to write concise, elegant code. For a list of the places where Perl uses $_ implicitly, see the first entry in perlvar#General-Variables. (If you’re not already familiar with the Perl documentation site, bookmark it now and get to know your way around as soon as possible.)

The Camel Book (4th Edition, p. 706) has this advice:

Use the singular pronoun to increase readability:

   for (@lines) {
       $_ .= "\n";
   }

[download]

The $_ variable is Perl’s version of a pronoun, and it essentially means “it”. So the code above means “for each line, append a newline to it.”

Hope that helps,

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

In reply to Re^3: First Question, why something works? (-M) by Athanasius
in thread First Question, why something works? (-M) by i255d

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