I didn't know that about the changes to qw//.

I've had some rude surprises when I've written subs that were intended to return lists. That's why I always use an intermediate variable or an explicit wantarray call in when I write a sub that will normally return a list. Things like return 7..5 can have surprising effects in scalar context.

Most of the time, a sub that returns a list should act like an array in scalar context, assigning to an intermediate array is a simple way to get context aware results. When other behavior is desired, I prefer to explicitly construct the result set using wantarray. 

sub seven_in_scalar_context { 
    my @r = 3..9;
    return @r;
}

sub nine_in_scalar_context { 
    my @r = 3..9;
    return wantarray ? @r : $r[-1];
}

[download]

Array behavior in scalar context is pretty well known, so I feel good about using it implicitly. I've seen too many questions about other kinds of contextual returns (especially the regarding the comma) to feel good about using them implicitly. So I use wantarray everywhere else.


TGI says moo

In reply to Re^5: most appropriate return data type by TGI
in thread most appropriate return data type by Anonymous Monk

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