Good points, but I would like to make an argument why it is a good practice to intiialize variables by hand.

Readability - traceability is important. Since Perl is not a strongly typed language, it is often more difficult to understand the authors intentions on a given variable. In C/C++/Java, you know what a variable will be used for not only by its name, but also by its type.

By initializing a variable to the empty string or 0, you let the reader know more about your intended purposes with the variable. 

"Never take yourself too seriously, 
because everyone knows that fat birds dont fly" -FLC

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In reply to Re^2: Array manipulation by scmason
in thread Array manipulation by loop362

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