in reply to What is the best way to determine if a string is blank?

Well, personally, I'd use the defined() method, which returns false if it's passed a blank string, true otherwise: 
if ( ! defined($foo) ) {
     #do something kool
  }
  else {
     #do something not so kool
  }

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Re: Re: What is the best way to determine if a string is blank?
by repson (Chaplain) on Jan 04, 2001 at 06:02 UTC
    That wouldn't do what is intended. Look at these cases... 
    my $var1;
my $var2 = undef;
my $var3 = "";
my $var4 = 0;
my $var5 = 1;
my $var6 = "foo";

for ($var1,$var2,$var3,$var4,$var5,$var6) {
  print defined($_)?1:0 . "\t" .
    ($_)?1:0 . "\n";
}

__END__
Output:
0   0
0   0
1   0
1   0
1   1
1   1

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[d/l]
      yeah, i guess you're right, because it returned true with $var3...but as for $var4 and $var5, the ($_)?1:0 is checking if they're TRUE or FALSE, not whether they're defined. still, i get your point.

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