Re^2: the basic datatypes, three

Why do we need to key scalar(@list) when only @list would also work?
for e.g.

use strict;
my @abc= ('a','b','c','d');
my $x= @abc;
my $y = scalar(@abc);
print $x."#".$y;
[download]

Here $x & $y both return 4.

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Re^3: the basic datatypes, three by merlyn (Sage) on Jan 24, 2006 at 14:10 UTC
The "scalar" op is needed only to provide scalar context in an otherwise list context space. For example: `my @lengths = scalar @x, scalar @y, scalar @z; # but... my $length_x = @x; my $length_y = @y; my $length_z = @z;` [download] The scalar is needed in the first example because the array names are in a list context otherwise. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply] [d/l]
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