Hello, I am absolutely perplexed by the following subroutine:

sub getPlatform {
    my $os = `uname`;
    chomp($os);

    for ($os) {
        /HP-UX/ and do {
            return('HP');
        };

        /Linux/ and do {
            my $hardware = `uname -m`;
            chomp($hardware);

            for ($hardware) {
                /ppc/    and return('PPC');
                /ppc64/  and return('PPC');
                /i686/   and return('INTEL');
                /x86_64/ and return('INTEL');

                errorMsg("Could not determine platform type for '$hard
+ware'");
            }
        };
    }
}

[download]

I think I know what the overall function of the subroutine is, it returns the platform. But we programmers are taught that 'for' is universally a looping construct, whereas here its intended use appears to resemble that of a switch statement, but I am not sure. Can a monk enlighten this newbie? Thanks

In reply to for loop ? by stevensw

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