It returns true if array is not empty

It is returning true if the array contains any elements, false if not.

It take the array in scalar context (thus getting its length) and negates it, so zero length would be true, non-zero false, then negates this again.

Cheers,
R.

If you are only interested in the truth of an expression, you can save some cycles by not copying the entire data. In this case, I would have preferred return scalar @array because of the way perl handles truth.

you can save some cycles by not copying the entire data.

Since the context is surely scalar, it wouldn't copy the entire data anyway.

ikegami,
I was speaking to the idiom not this specific example. For instance return $foo; where $foo is the contents of a large file. I also am not sure I agree that the author of the sub can be sure that the caller of the sub would be calling it in scalar context - making the explicit scalar useful.

Cheers - L~R

It's doing a couple things, although only one of them is relevant to the execution of code:

• As mentioned, it's returning 1 if there are any items in @value, and false otherwise.
• It's wreaking havoc on Vim's syntax highlighting.
• It's wreaking havoc on my own poor brain trying to parse "not not (scalar) @value".

I'd probably use a more explicit test, as the following example shows (lexical variables added for my own peace of mind):

use Modern::Perl;

sub mean_test {
    my @value = @_;

    return !!@value;
}

sub nicer_test {
    my @values = @_;

    return scalar @values > 0;
}

say "Mean: Empty: ", mean_test();
say "Mean: One Item: ", mean_test("sweet!");
say "Mean: Two Items: ", mean_test("dude!", "sweet!");

say "Nicer: Empty: ", nicer_test();
say "Nicer: One Item: ", nicer_test("sweet!");
say "Nicer: Two Items: ", nicer_test("dude!", "sweet!");
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It evaluates the same, as far as I can tell.

Mean: Empty:
Mean: One Item: 1
Mean: Two Items: 1
Nicer: Empty:
Nicer: One Item: 1
Nicer: Two Items: 1

The vim syntax highlighting thing can be fixed by putting a space between the bangs (! !@_).
[]s, HTH, Massa (κς,πμ,πλ)

The same as:

return @value ? 1 : '';
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Not quite.

$ perl -wle'print 0 + sub { my @v; !!@v }->()'
0

$ perl -wle'print 0 + sub { my @v; @v ? 1 : "" }->()'
Argument "" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1.
0
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And it doesn't return zero for false either.

$ perl -wle'print "" . sub { my @v; !!@v }->()'


$ perl -wle'print "" . sub { my @v; @v ? 1 : 0 }->()'
0
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False is actually dualvar(0, '')

It's an idiom to return the correct boolean for an expression.