Scaler found where opeartor expected Error

mipatel has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hello, i am having trouble debugging this program could someone help me please

foreach $Author2 ( @author_order ) { 
     $auth  = $author_books{ $Author2 };
    my $books = $auth->{order}; 
    push @body, "<tr><td rowspan="${\scalar, @$books}"$Author2</td>\n"
+;
    my $line = 0;
    foreach my $book ( @$books ) { 
        push @body, '<tr><td></td>' if ++$line;
        push @body
           , ( "<td>$book</td><td>"
             . join( "<br/>\n", @{ $auth->{books}{ $book } } )
             . "</td><tr>\n"
             );
    }
}
[download]

The error says Scalar found where operator expected at rough.pl line 43, near

<tr><td rowspan="$"
        (Missing operator before $?)
String found where operator expected at rough.pl line 43, near "}"$Aut
+hor2</td>\n""
        (Missing operator before "$Author2</td>\n"?)
syntax error at rough.pl line 43, near ""<tr><td rowspan="$"
[download]

Comment on Scaler found where opeartor expected Error Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Scaler found where opeartor expected Error by muba (Priest) on May 29, 2012 at 18:36 UTC
Does it say scaler found, scalar found, or string found? Let's pick that line apart, though, and see what's happening. `push @body, # So far so good. We're gonna push something o +nto the array. "<tr><td rowspan=" # Push a string onto the array. ${\scalar, @$books} # What IS this, anyway? "$Author2</td>\n" # Another string ; # Done. But with what?` [download] Not to mention the missing `>` in the HTML.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
found the errror by mipatel (Novice) on May 29, 2012 at 19:09 UTC
i am not suppose to use double quotes around the scalar	[reply]
Re: Scaler found where opeartor expected Error by NetWallah (Canon) on May 29, 2012 at 21:22 UTC
It appears that you are attempting Bash shell style expression evaluation in perl. Change that to: `push @body, "<tr><td rowspan='" . scalar( @$books ) . "'>$Author2</td>\n";` [download] I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it. -SNL	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Scaler found where opeartor expected Error by poj (Abbot) on May 29, 2012 at 21:24 UTC
`push @body,"<tr><td rowspan=\"${\scalar @$books}\">$Author2</td>\n"; # add \ \ > ^ ^ ^ # remove , ^` [download] poj	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Scaler found where opeartor expected Error by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on May 29, 2012 at 23:58 UTC
This fixes the immediate problem and leaves behind, IMHO, a little nightmare for the poor shlub who has to maintain this code six months or a year from now; better make sure he or she does not know your name or where you live – unless the maintainer is you, in which case justice may be said to have been served! Much better, I think, to use an sprintf statement instead. `>perl -wMstrict -le "my $books = [ qw(a b c) ]; my @body = qw(x y); my $Author2 = 'defoe'; ;; push @body, qq{<td rowspan=${\scalar @$books}>$Author2</td>}; push @body, sprintf qq{<td rowspan=%d>$Author2</td>}, scalar @$books; print qq{'$_'} for @body; " 'x' 'y' '<td rowspan=3>defoe</td>' '<td rowspan=3>defoe</td>'` [download]	[reply] [d/l]