$a and $b should not be understood as stand-ins for "anything"

True. I very consciously chose the scalars $a and $b. In fact, I had originally started to write return A ? A : B; but realized that that would not be sufficient, nor would it be necessary for the point (i.e. the OP's problem).

In reply to Re^5: Useless use of string in return statement by Anonymous Monk
in thread Useless use of string in return statement by Bod

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