# use map where possible to create hashes where there 
# is a clear relationship between the key and value pairs
my %month_to_num = # hash from map
    map { my $prefix = ($_ < 9) ? "0" : ""; $_ => $prefix . ($_ + 1) }
+ ( 0 .. 11 );

# use fat comma to make code more readable

my %month_to_name = ( 
                 0  => 'Jan',
                 1  => 'Feb',
                 2  => 'Mar',
                 3  => 'Apr',
                 4  => 'May',
                 5  => 'Jun',
                 6  => 'Jul',
                 7  => 'Aug',
                 8  => 'Sep',
                 9  => 'Oct',
                 10 => 'Nov',
                 11 => 'Dec'
              );

# this subroutine could be made much simpler

sub pad_with_zeroes {
    my ($value, $pad_length) = @_;
    my $pad = "0" x ($pad_length - length($value));
    $pad . $value;
}

# avoid meaningless comments
# --------------------------

# e.g.
#
# Variable declarations
#

# and later
# ---------
# 
# Load the values and do the work

# in my opinion this creates noise and does not aid readability
# Refer to Chapter 7 of Perl Best Practices and use POD

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In reply to Re: How do I prototype a function with a varying number of arguments? by ricDeez
in thread How do I prototype a function with a varying number of arguments? by lyapunov

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