What if Alex has three children? Who cares about shorter if it doesn't produce the right output. 

use strict;
use warnings;

sub plural($@) {
   my ($n, $s, $p) = @_;
   if    ($n == 0) { return "no $p";  }
   elsif ($n == 1) { return "one $s"; }
   else            { return "$n $p";  }
}

sub count_phrase {
   my $last = pop @_;
   return $last if !@_;
   return join(', ', @_), ' and ', $last;
}

sub print_person {
   my ($person) = @_;
   my $name     = $person->{name};
   my $age      = $person->{age};
   my $children = $person->{children};

   if ( @$children ) {
      my @chd_ages = map { $_->{age} } @$children;
      print("$name has ", count_phrase(@$children, 'child', 'children'
+), "\n");
      print("The are ", phrase_list(@chd_ages), " years old\n");
   } else {
      print("$name has no children\n");
   }

   print("$name is $age years old\n");
}

{
   my %person = (
      name     => 'Alex',
      age      => 30,
      children => [
         { age => 2 },
         { age => 5 },
      ],
   );

   print_person(\%alex);
}

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In reply to Re: short method to print age. by ikegami
in thread short method to print age. by zouz

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