my ($a) =@_; picks off the first element of @_. my ($a) = shift; would get the same value into $a (bad name for a variable BTW - used by sort) and removes that element for @_.

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re^3: why this function call print 9 by GrandFather
in thread why this function call print 9 by edwardt_tril

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