I was thinking of things like this, where the assignment is done later:

sub gimme_my_data {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->{data} || {}
}
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you could use a code block there too if you want to ( || do { ... }).
"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

After I wrote the initial reply this morning, I was thinking that it might be this sort of thing. I like to use an explicit return in my subs, so I guess I wouldn't run into this problem.

thor

Feel the white light, the light within
Be your own disciple, fan the sparks of will
For all of us waiting, your kingdom will come

This website is frequently the meeting place for showdowns about "show-off perl" vs "safe perl" programming.

I often write an empty block as follows:

    {
        ;
    }
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    if ($condition_that_should_return_true)
    {
        ; # success!
    }
    elsif (...)
      .
      .
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If you are coding in a manner than can be interpreted a multiple number of ways depending on context, then you should either code within the context, or avoid expressing your statement when you're unsure of the context.

I suggest you have a read of Code Complete. It may make you aware of some programming methodologies that will help you avoid unsafe programming.

But my point is that it isn't valid code, and that even if it was valid code, it would would be useless, despite what people would tell you.

update: If you really want 2 empty blocks, do something like

{ ; }
{ ; }
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"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

warning: nerdy nitpick ahead :)

I would argue that {;} is not an empty block. I think it's analagous to a set that contains the empty set as it's only element.

but i don't think the compiler makes the distinction.. perl -MO=Terse -e 'if(1){;}' and perl -MO=Terse -e 'if(1){}' given identical output.

it would would be useless

That doesn't matter.

despite what people would tell you

That doesn't matter either.

IMHO, it is valid code. Look at it this way:

  # block #1
  {

  }

  # block #2
  {

  }
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See? Two empty blocks waiting for code. It is valid.

Just because no one in their perfect state of mind would use that doesn't make it invalid.