Re: Append to file or create file depending on input filename.

Elegance is in the eye of the beholder of course, but how about:

open($filehandle, (($outfile =~ s/\A>//xms) ? '>>' : '>'), $outfile);
[download]

That is, if the substitution succeeds, it should return a true value (the number of things replaced, at least 1), and you get '>>' for your mode at the same time that you fix your outfile namae. Otherwise you get '>' for your mode. I wasn't sure about the evaluation happening in the right order, but I tested it and it seems to work. :)

Comment on Re: Append to file or create file depending on input filename. Download Code

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Re^2: Append to file or create file depending on input filename. by moritz (Cardinal) on Nov 20, 2009 at 14:14 UTC
You can also write the substitution a bit simpler: `$outfile =~ s/^>//` [download] I know that PBP encourages you to always use `xms`, and `\A` instead of `^`, but that doesn't mean it's the most elegant or simple way to write it.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Append to file or create file depending on input filename. by markuhs (Scribe) on Nov 20, 2009 at 15:10 UTC
As this problem was caused by applying things learned from PBP I surely will use the code as provided by bellaire. ;) ++bellaire! Thank you!	[reply]
Re^2: Append to file or create file depending on input filename. by graff (Chancellor) on Nov 20, 2009 at 23:24 UTC
I wasn't sure about the evaluation happening in the right order, but I tested it and it seems to work. :) Well, I would be inclined to worry about that too, and unless I find the bit of perl documentation that actually spells out the "official policy" about evaluation order for arguments in a subroutine call, I would consider a successful run on my own machine to be no guarantee that it'll work on other machines, or on my machine after I upgrade to the next Perl release. And rather than take the time to hunt down that (possibly obscure) snippet of documentation, it would be easier for me just to add one more line of code and one more variable, so I don't have to worry about it.	[reply]
Re^3: Append to file or create file depending on input filename. by bellaire (Hermit) on Nov 21, 2009 at 13:08 UTC
This is a good point. I don't know how likely this behavior is to change in the future or between platforms, only that the rough rule of thumb is that evaluation happens left-to-right. However, as this mailing-list thread shows, that's a rule subject to many exceptions. And, as you might have suspected, the discussion there seems to indicate that the order of evaluation is not well-defined, so perl simply does what it does.	[reply]