Oh revered monks, I come seeking knowledge and wisdom.

Quick description of my 'issue:

I can take the same block of code, and move one line (a conditional operator) from one point to another, and I end up with a different result.

My Data structure is an AoH, where a Hash element 'could' be an array. The conditonal is testing for the existance of that secondary array. I loop over the AoH.

With the conditional operator assignment at the top of my loop, I get the expected results based on the test in the conditional. If I move the conditional assignment to the end of my loop (no data changes within the loop), I get responses as if the conditional were always true.

Code whittled down (line marked with <------ is the offending little bugger) 

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

use warnings;
use strict;

my $records = [
               {
                 'services' => [],
                 'zone_record_id' => '1',
               },
               {
                 'services' => [
                                 {
                                   'status' => 'OK',
                                   'id' => '0',
                                   'class' => 'Primary'
                                 }
                               ],
                 'zone_record_id' => '2',
               },
               {
                 'services' => [
                                 {
                                   'status' => 'OK',
                                   'id' => '1',
                                   'class' => 'Editable'
                                 }
                               ],
                 'zone_record_id' => '4',
               },
               {
                 'services' => [
                                 {
                                   'status' => 'OK',
                                   'id' => '1',
                                   'class' => 'Secondary'
                                 }
                               ],
                 'zone_record_id' => '5',
               },
 ];


my $lbr = "\n=============\n";
foreach my $record (@$records) {
    my $editor;
    print $lbr, "Record: $record->{'zone_record_id'}";

    # Conditional array defined check first
    $editor = (@{$record->{'services'}})? 'service_edit' : 'plain_edit
+'; # <--- 

    $editor = "no editor" if $record->{'services'}[0]{'class'} eq 'Pri
+mary';
    $editor = "no editor" if $record->{'services'}[0]{'class'} eq 'Sec
+ondary';

    # place here for 'Try to define all 'no editor' situations first

    print $editor;

}

[download]
Results: 
Conditionaly check for defined array first:

=============
Record: 1
plain_edit

=============
Record: 2
no editor

=============
Record: 4
service_edit

=============
Record: 5
no editor


Try to define all 'no editor' situations first:


=============
Record: 1
service_edit

=============
Record: 2
service_edit

=============
Record: 4
service_edit

=============
Record: 5
service_edit

[download]

Yes, I know that the eq test is putting up 'undefined' warnings on those $records where the secondary array is not defined. I deal with it in my full code, this is just "narrowed down to the least amount of code to reproduce the problem".

P.S. I had a difficult time coming up with an appropriate title, so any suggestions welcome

In reply to Location of Conditional test effects results by chakram88

Title:
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