Sequentially-named variables are almost always a sign of bad design.

Consider describing $calc3 by itself. What does the name mean? If in describing the variable in human terms, you mention "third" anywhere in the description, then the variable almost certainly should have been the third element of an array.

If it's the "third" of something, you're very likely to want to perform operations on the "first", "second", "third", and so on of that category (as you discovered). And the easiest way to do that is with an array.

Just because Perl can frequently go behind the scenes and help you discover "all variables named as $calcnnn" doesn't mean that you should contemplate your navel in every single program. Too much introspection leads to fragile programs, and in that case, be very careful how much information you put about your authorship, because your maintenance programmer will hunt you down and kill you.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

In reply to On sequentially-named variables by merlyn
in thread space saving wanted! by Anonymous Monk

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.