return either a single object if there's only one, or the array reference if there's more than one
In my opinion, that's the wrong thing to do. ... Changing the return type based on some property of the data is a whole different thing. It requires the caller to either test or already know what it gets back from the call. I consider that a design error.

I completely agree with that. It's one of the things that's so annoying about CGI::Lite (for which I'm the current maintainer); having to test whether you've got an array-ref and then deal with it if you have is more effort than just always getting an array-ref.

The link data should be designed to always be the same kind of thing, in this case an array reference.

I'm not convinced by that, though. I like what CGI does in scalar context: it presumes that you used scalar context cos you're only expecting one item, so it just gives you one item, the first (or only) item in the list. I think that approach may also make sense here:

return ref $link ? (wantarray ? @$link : $link->[0]) : $link;

[download]
Smylers

In reply to Re^2: Confused Contexts and wantarray by Smylers
in thread Confused Contexts and wantarray by Dr. Mu

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.