Afternoon monks,

2 questions:
1: why does this not work:

print "not ref:\n";
test(dogs=>'bark', cats=>'miaow');

print "ref:\n";
test({dogs=>'bark', cats=>'miaow'});

sub test{
  my $params;                                  
  ref($_[0]) ? $params = shift : $params = {@_};
  print Dumper($params);
}
[download]

The output is

not ref:
$VAR1 = {
          'cats' => 'miaow',
          'dogs' => 'bark'
        };
ref:
Odd number of elements in anonymous hash at params.t line 16.
$VAR1 = {
          'HASH(0x81194e0)' => undef
        };
[download]

Which would seem to imply that the test is always false, but if I change $params = {@_} to print "hello" I get:

not ref:
hello
$VAR1 = undef;
ref:
$VAR1 = {
          'dogs' => 'bark',
          'cats' => 'miaow'
        };
[download]

So in this case, when it is a reference, the test correctly evaluates to true and doesn't print 'hello'

Also, if I do it like:

  if(ref($_[0])){
    $params = shift;
  }
  else{
    $params = {@_};
  }
[download]

I get exactly what I was expecting:

not ref:
$VAR1 = {
          'cats' => 'miaow',
          'dogs' => 'bark'
        };
ref:
$VAR1 = {
          'cats' => 'miaow',
          'dogs' => 'bark'
        };
[download]

?????

2. Is there a better way to allow a sub to be called like either test(dogs=>bark, cats=>miaow) or test({dogs=>bark, cats=>miaow})?

Cheers, Cxx

Edit by BazB retitle from ":? wierd"

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