in reply to Re^2: looking for a good idiom: return this if this is true
in thread looking for a good idiom: return this if this is true

I'm not saying it's good, but it does answer the OP, somewhat, and it's very short.
...it could convert a "numeric" scalar into a "string" scalar. No good.
If you think such conversions are inherently bad, then Perl probably isn't the language for you.
  • Comment on Re^3: looking for a good idiom: return this if this is true