in reply to "Can't happen" bugs

I ran into this one not long ago: 
if ($x = 0) {
  return "zero";
} elsif ($x < 0) {
  return "negative";
} elsif ($x > 0) {
  return "positive";
}

# Cannot reach here

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Re^2: "Can't happen" bugs
by jrockway (Acolyte) on Jan 18, 2007 at 23:47 UTC
    Beautiful! That's why you should always put the constant on the left:

    if(0 = $x) # Can't modify constant item in scalar assignment.
[reply]
[d/l]

      Or use warnings: 

      use warnings;

my $x;
if ($x = 0) { 1 }

__END__
Found = in conditional, should be == at - line 4.

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      lodin

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[d/l]

In Section Meditations