in reply to Why are "a ||= b" and "a = a || b" different?

You could just say $ret ||= (foo())[0]; instead.

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Re^2: Why are "a ||= b" and "a = a || b" different?
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 05, 2007 at 07:04 UTC

    The equivalent would actually be 

    $ret ||= (foo())[-1];

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[reply]
[d/l]

      I'm affraid no. 

      sub foo { 
        wantarray or 
                die "this function is called in list context in all ex
+amples"; 
        "alpha", "beta", "gamma"; 
} 
$ret = undef; 
($ret) = $ret || foo(); 
print "parenthetical: $ret\n";
$ret = undef; 
$ret ||= (foo())[0]; 
print "zero: $ret\n";
$ret = undef; 
$ret = (foo())[-1]; 
print "minus one: $ret\n";

      [download]
      Gives 
      parenthetical: alpha
zero: alpha
minus one: gamma

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[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        My apologies. My test was wrong.
[reply]

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