I have just read through your specification

Something like this will do?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

sub checkit {
    my $file = shift;
    return (-e $file && -w _);  # the _ is a shortcut for checking on 
+the same file instead of making another stat call
}

my $ret = checkit("/home/monk/hello");
if ($ret) { print "File exists with write perm\n" }
else { print "File does not exist or no write perm\n"; }
[download]

will let you know shortly why your code does not work. In the mean time check out perldoc -f -X

Update: First off why do you need to check for exists and write perm? -w would take care of that.

Why do you think your -e,-w works?  if (-e,-w $file) does not do  if (-e $file && -w $file) The comma operator just returns the last value evaluated. So it basically will do -w $file and tell you the answer. It might work out but if you turn on warnings you will notice -e works on uninit value as it is looking for $_. If you have set $_ elesewhere it makes things worse as it is not doing what you wanted

 $_[0] && $_[1] in your if statement just checks if the values  $_[0] and $_[1] for true/false. It does not evaluate the expression. Besides  if ($_[0] $_[1]) is not a valid syntax

Hope this helps!

cheers

SK