This works fine, and does not clobber $_. 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

print test(), $/;

sub subtest { return 4 }

sub test {
    return $_ if ( local $_ = subtest() );

    # continue
    return 'false';
}

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In reply to Re^2: For clarity and cleanliness, I'd recommend... by saskaqueer
in thread looking for a good idiom: return this if this is true by merlyn

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