Re: what does my ($subdir, @keywords) = split; do.

I understand that split creates an array from a string

No, split creates a list.

What is the difference between a list and an array?

So @array = split(/\s+/, $_) splits the $_ varible at whitespaces and places the results in array. @array =split does the same.

No, split with no arguments does something similar but not quite the same as split( /\s+/, $_ ). You will only notice the difference if the string in $_ has leading whitespace.

my ($subdir, @keywords) = split; assigns the list returned from split to the list in the parentheses. If any of the variables in the parentheses is an array or a hash it will receive the remaining items in the list and any variables following said array or hash will not receive anything. This is all explained in the documentation.

perldoc perldata

Comment on Re: what does my ($subdir, @keywords) = split; do.

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Re^2: what does my ($subdir, @keywords) = split; do. by richill (Monk) on Mar 20, 2006 at 22:59 UTC
So as I now understand it ($subdir, @keywords) = split Creates a list from a string in $_. It assigns the first value of that list into $subdir and the remaining values into the @keywords array. ($subdir, @keywords, $empty) = split $empty does not recieve anything because all thevalues go into the @keywords array Thanks	[reply]