> I am a bit baffled as to why "()" should make a better false value as say "undef"

sub tst { return undef } means returning a one element list in list context.

so @a = tst() is true in if(@a) {..} (length is one)

FWIW for me a blank return; is best for false. (i.e. returning an empty list implicitely )

And the empty list evaluates to undef again in scalar context.

update

I've been a bit sloppy in my wording, Perl doesn't return a list!

The return statement is evaluated in the call context (one of the weirdnesses which were adressed in Perl6).

But this is not relevant when retuning just one undef.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!


In reply to Re: What could make "()" a good value for boolean false? (updated) by LanX
in thread What could make "()" a good value for boolean false? by morgon

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.