Data::Section::Simple has a single function which returns a part of a DATA section as a string. I'm using this module in Locale::US as well as Regexp::Common::profanity_us. However, in both cases, I've needed to take the string of data and convert it into a series of lines: 
my $data = Data::Section::Simple::get_data_section('profanity');
my @line = split "\n", $data;

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So I'm thinking it would be nice to be able to get the section back as an array of lines. However, there are two approaches to this, ok 3:
  1. add an argument to get_data_section indicating to return an array of lines
  2. write a separate function get_data_section_as_lines
  3. have this single function operate in scalar or array context
What is the "best" option from a software engineering point of view?

In reply to (scalar or array context|new|decorated) function for Data::Section::Simple? by metaperl

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