Using my on for/foreach loop variables is not merely making explicit the implicit localization that is provided by the loop: the new lexical variable is distinct from any variable of the same name (lexical or not) in the surrounding scope.

Note the difference in the following example:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use vars qw($n);

$n = "global";

sub foo {
        my $x = shift;
        print "$x, $n\n";
}


foreach $n (0..2) {
        foo($n);
}

print "\$n = $n\n";

foreach my $n (0..2) {
        foo($n);
}

print "\$n = $n\n";
[download]

Which produces:

0, 0
1, 1
2, 2
$n = global
0, global
1, global
2, global
$n = global
[download]

After both foreach loops the global $n remains unchanged but within the first (my not used) the global is affected while within the second (my is used) the global is not affected.

I admit in day-to-day scripts always wanting the foreach element placeholder to be local (in the general sense) to the loop so that having it my'd as far is mandatory as chromatic showed us in the other post.

But, we can imagine some uses in special cases as debugging, introspection or understanding dead code...

I did a quick grep on the perl files I have installed for foreach that seems to use a global "$i". I've only found one, maybe, from perl5db.pl.

It might be an interessing read.