Re: Is an empty block not a block?

{} is an empty hash. Consider:

use warnings;
use strict;

my $hashRef = {};

print "This is fine";
[download]

then remove the variable and assignment.

use warnings;
use strict;

{};

print "This is fine";
[download]

</c>

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

Comment on Re: Is an empty block not a block? Select or Download Code

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Re^2: Is an empty block not a block? by chas (Priest) on Nov 18, 2005 at 22:18 UTC
But if so, why is a semicolon necessary. It isn't if the hashref isn't empty as in: `{blah, "blah"} print "This is fine\n";` [download] I don't see why being empty changes anything essential. Perhaps in the empty case, perl doesn't know what it is, and that's the problem... (I guess `{blah, "blah"}` is considered to be a hashref; I don't know what else it would be...) chas	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Is an empty block not a block? by eric256 (Parson) on Nov 18, 2005 at 23:00 UTC
Actualy `{blah, "blah"}` is considered a block. See below for proof. ;). Perl is trying to be smart and guessing on what exactly {} is based on context. {} makes lots of since as a hash ref but very little as a block. `{blah, "blah"}`is usefull as a block while `my $x = {blah, "blah"};` is most probalby a hashref and treated that way. `C:\Perl\test>perl -e"{test,'blah'} print 'hello'"; hello C:\Perl\test>perl -e"{test,'blah', print '1'} print 'hello'"; 1hello` [download] ___________ Eric Hodges $_='y==QAe=e?y==QG@>@?iy==QVq?f?=a@iG?=QQ=Q?9'; s/(.)/ord($1)-50/eigs;tr/6123457/- \/\|\\\_\n/;print;	[reply] [d/l] [select]