in reply to Declaring my $var versus declaring my($var)

If you initialize your variables, the () makes a difference: context. 
use strict;
use warnings;

sub print_context {
    say wantarray ? 'list' : 'scalar';
}

my $x   = print_context;
my ($y) = print_context;
__END__
scalar
list

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Examples where this makes a difference: 

my  $time1  = localtime;
my ($time2) = localtime; 

my  $rev1   = reverse $some_string;
my ($rev2)  = reverse $some_string;

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Perl 6 - second systems done right

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Re^2: Declaring my $var versus declaring my($var)
by dh1760 (Acolyte) on Jun 10, 2011 at 14:25 UTC

    Now I understand why "in scalar context returns ..." has sometimes not returned what I expected. Amazing that I've probably coded tens of thousands of lines of perl over the years and have rarely been bitten by this difference. I suspect it's because any time it has caused an unexpected result, I've just figured out a different way to get what I needed.

    I guess we're never too old to learn ... thanks for the lesson!

    --
    DaveH (dh1760)

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