This is exactly the kind of problem that the forthcoming "defined or" (//) operator is designed to deal with. If you're using the current development version of Perl (5.9) or when the next stable version (5.10) is released, you'll be able to write

my $db_write = shift // 1;

[download]

Instead of

my $db_write = shift;
$db_write = 1 unless defined $db_write;

[download]

Actually, I think that currently I'd write your code like this

my $ref_mail = shift;
my $db_write = @_ ? shift : 1;

[download]
--
<http://dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg

In reply to Re: Pass an optional parameter to a subroutine by davorg
in thread Pass an optional parameter to a subroutine by ocs

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