array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis

jesuashok has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by FunkyMonk (Bishop) on May 14, 2007 at 11:16 UTC
It's because the precedence of comma is less than that of equals. ie, the statement is parsed as `( my @one = 7 ), 2, 3;` See Operator Precedence and Associativity for the gory details	[reply] [d/l]
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by shmem (Chancellor) on May 14, 2007 at 11:40 UTC
Perl has the tools you can use to answer that question to yourself - apart from the docs (see perlop), B::Deparse is helpful: `perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'my @one = 7,2,3; print "@one"' ((my(@one) = 7), '???', '???'); print("@one\n"); -e syntax OK` [download] From the extra grouping parens you can read the precedence. The '???' means that the expression it stands for has been optimized away. --shmem _($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo. G°\ / /\_¯/(q / ---------------------------- \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."· ");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}	[reply] [d/l]
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by salva (Canon) on May 14, 2007 at 11:18 UTC
That's because the '=' operator has higher precedence than ','. Your expression is parsed as `(my @one = 7), 2, 3;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by Krambambuli (Curate) on May 14, 2007 at 13:25 UTC
Making systematic use of `use strict; use warnings;` [download] would spoil the pleasure of letting questions like this showing up... :) With warnings enabled, the fun of debugging the issue in a later stage would have vanished, as the message shown during compilation: `Useless use of a constant in void context at ./test.pl line ...` [download] is obviously much less of a quest.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by naikonta (Curate) on May 14, 2007 at 14:30 UTC
I scrolled fast over the replies and finally found what I expected that some will answer this way. ++ Krambambuli Open source softwares? Share and enjoy. Make profit from them if you can. Yet, share and enjoy!	[reply]
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by PreferredUserName (Pilgrim) on May 14, 2007 at 12:36 UTC
As for why Perl has this little wart, it's because assigning a literal list to an array like that less common than saving the return value of a function for which you omit the parens. You can safely do this: `$text = join "\|", 1, 2, 3;` [download] but if assignment bound tighter than comma, that would annoyingly parse as: `($text = join "\|"), 1, 2, 3;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by ikegami (Patriarch) on May 14, 2007 at 14:45 UTC
I'm not sure where you are going, but it seems the conclusion would be that `my @one = 7,2,3;` is `my @one = (7,2,3);` because `(my @one = 7),2,3;` would be annoying. The very post to which you replied shows this is untrue. `my @one = 7,2,3;` is the same as `(my @one = 7),2,3;` There is more than one operator represented by the comma. Your examples and therefore your conclusion are irrelevant to the OP's problem since you're not using the same operator. The OP's problem is that he used the comma operator where he wanted to use the list seperator, not one of precedence. Just like `join` forced a list in your example, the OP can force a list by adding parens around the would-be list. The parens do not change the precendence in this case. They change the parsing context, causing the comma to be parsed as a different operator. Update: Changed wording. Update: s/context/parsing context/, in response to shmem's reply.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by shmem (Chancellor) on May 15, 2007 at 10:08 UTC
Not (quite) accurate. Consider `($foo) = (7,2,4); # list context - comma := list separator print $foo,"\n"; __END__ 7` [download] `$foo = (7,2,4); # scalar context despite of parens - comma := 'C' co +mma print $foo,"\n"; __END__ 4` [download] `$foo = (7,2,4) x 3; # comma := 'C' comma, 'x' operates on scalar print $foo,"\n"; __END__ 444` [download] `@foo = (7,2,4) x 3; # comma := list separator, 'x' operates on list print @foo,"\n"; __END__ 724724724` [download] Parens are just grouping, thus for precedence. They do not provide list context. The list context in `@foo = (7,2,4);` [download] is enforced by the LHS of the expression. But it is perfectly legal to assign a single scalar to an array. The parens are for precedence first, and then, that being clear, the comma is disambiguated as a list separator, as enforced by the LHS. --shmem _($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo. G°\ / /\_¯/(q / ---------------------------- \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."· ");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by ikegami (Patriarch) on May 15, 2007 at 17:29 UTC
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by bones (Acolyte) on May 14, 2007 at 12:40 UTC
the precedence of "=" is bigger than the ","	[reply]
Re: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by Random_Walk (Prior) on May 14, 2007 at 14:04 UTC
You are not copying an array into your array. You are putting in the result of the operation ~~7,2,3 which is 7~~ @one = 7,2,3 which due to precedence is evaluated as (my @one = 7),2,3 as previously explained in this thread. To get the array I think you want in there: `use strict; use warnings; use strict; my @one = (7,2,3); print "@one\n"; Output :- 7 2 3` [download] Cheers, R. Pereant, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt! update shmem pointed out my sloppy summary of this problem. I was concentrating on what I thought he wanted to achieve and lost sight of the true explanation.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: array assignment with list operator , no parenthesis by shmem (Chancellor) on May 14, 2007 at 14:10 UTC
You are putting the result of the operation 7,2,3 which is 7. No, it is not. Consider: `perl -le 'sub foo { 7,2,3 } $foo = foo(); print $foo' 3` [download] It's a precedence problem as other posters pointed out. update Well, actually... the above example is misleading, since the comma operator is used in list context here - subroutines always return lists (if not declared with a single ($) as prototype, that is). And evaluating a list in scalar context gives its last element - which is just what the comma operator does ;-) A better example might be `print not 1,0; print $/; __END__ 1` [download] The not operator gets the `0` and turns it to `1`. --shmem _($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo. G°\ / /\_¯/(q / ---------------------------- \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."· ");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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