Re: Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving

Interesting and surprising.

  DB<1> @a = qw( a b c d e )

  DB<2> x @a[1,3]
0  'b'
1  'd'
  DB<3> x scalar @a[1,3]
0  'd'
  DB<4>
[download]

In my mind, the 'scalar' applies to the result of the slice, but obviously it 'reaches into' the subscripting square brackets to create a slice of the rightmost subscript.

As Occam said: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

Comment on Re: Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving by tinita (Parson) on Oct 20, 2010 at 15:58 UTC
not surprising because an array slice is basically just shorter for: `($a[1], $a[3])` and `scalar ($a[1], $a[3])` will return `$a[3]`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving (not distributed inside) by tye (Sage) on Oct 21, 2010 at 14:26 UTC
In my mind, the 'scalar' applies to the result of the slice, but obviously it 'reaches into' the subscripting square brackets to create a slice of the rightmost subscript. That is what I wished happened. If I'd bothered to try to design what it should do rather than throw together the quickest patch possible, I would have made it do that (at least the me of today would have). But, no, that isn't actually what happens. You can see that easily enough: `my @a= ('a'..'d'); my @b= (4,2,1); print scalar @a[0,@b], $/; print @a[scalar(0,@b)], $/; __END__ b # $a[1] because $b[-1] is 1 d # $a[3] because @b has 3 elements` [download] - tye	[reply] [d/l]