kiat, another good question, one that I have thought about often. Here's where I'm at now. I no longer initialize with a value, unless that value is to be used immediately and/or it helps me read what I'm doing: 
my $ctr = 0;
for ( 0 .. 5 ) {
   if ($foo[$_] eq $bar) {
      $ctr++;
   }
}

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I have found there is a difference between: 
my $variable;

[download]
and 
my $variable = "";

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or 
my $variable = 0;

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depending on usage. In summary, I don't think there can be a hard a fast rule. Like many things, it depends on context and the readibility you need.

—Brad
"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up. " G. K. Chesterton

In reply to Re: To initialise or not to initialise? by bradcathey
in thread To initialise or not to initialise? by kiat

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