What's the shortest/best way to test for an empty string ? I found a place where I foolishly used a simple if statement: 
   if ($rc=$ref->getc) { .... }

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Of course, that works fine until the string coming back happens to be 0x30 ... :(
"length(...)" seems like just a little bit too much work (for Perl).
   if ($rc=$ref->getc!~/./) { ... }

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won't work because the !~ binds tighter than the "=" (and perhaps it's a little too obscure). I'm just wondering if there is some simple idiom that I'm overlooking. Thanks !

In reply to Testing for empty string by Anonymous Monk

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