I'd vote for using /\t/ as it is much more self-documenting. Seeing split "\t" makes me wonder what split '\t' does. Well, all of these are the same (they split on tab): 

    split /\t/
    split "\t"
    split '\t'
    split "\\t"
    split '\\t'
    split "\\\t"

[download]
while all of these are the same (they split on backslash followed by "t"): 
    split /\\t/
    split "\\\\t"
    split '\\\\t'
    split '\\\t'

[download]

Did that surprise you? I can certainly seeing that surprising a non-perfect Perl coder who takes over maintanence of your code.

I think split $string would be more DWIM if it translated into split /\Q$string\E/, which it doesn't. So I think you should avoid using it as it makes your code harder to maintain. (Except for the special case of split " ", of course.)

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to split $str (Re: Where oh where should I initialize my vars?) by tye
in thread Where oh where should I initialize my vars? by Guildenstern

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