In testing a new install of Perl 5.8 (previously 5.6.1) I ran into several scripts that bombed!
The offending scripts all had similar sprintf lines something like: 


my $tot = sprintf "%lf\n", ($ARGV[0]/$ARGV[1]);

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The error I got was:

Invalid conversion in sprintf: "%f" at yadayadayada line whatever

Now if I change the line to:

my $tot = sprintf "%f\n", ($ARGV[0]/$ARGV[1]);

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I no longer get the error but I'm not 100% sure I understand the difference. I don't get this error with 5.6.1. This being said, I have 2 questions. What is the difference (if any) between "%lf" and "%f" as a format to (s)printf? And is there a concise document that outlines all the syntactical changes in Perl 5.8? I have read perldelta and I did see a number of things but not specifically this issue. So, it leaves me wondering if there may be other changes not listed in perldelta.

Thanks!

In reply to Syntactical changes in Perl 5.8 from 5.6.1 by sweetblood

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