There is a very significant difference: your second snippet isn't aliasing anything, it's making a local copy.

I tend to use for as a topicalizer for single expressions, as a statement modifier. It would be cumbersome to bloat those into a naked block with a local, and will often not even do what I want since I'm actually intending to change the original variable. A silly example would be s/nit// for $style;

For temporary variables, which was what this thread really was about, I use local. Not only does a for block not do what I want anyway (except (close your eyes) in the perverted for(my $temp) { ... } form (now open them again)) because it aliases a variable rather than give me a fresh, empty one, but it also adds another indentation level, which in my stylistic preference is to be avoided at all cost.

for and local are really orthogonal to each other. Neither can do what the other does, and so debating which one is preferred is moot.

Makeshifts last the longest.

In reply to Re^2: Using $_ as a temp var, especially in functions by Aristotle
in thread Using $_ as a temp var, especially in functions by BUU

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