When the function is localtime-ish, I make it work like that. I have several that return a human readable string in scalar context, but a list of (numeric) elements in list context.

If the function returns a list that has a logical order and a variable number of elements, I return wantarray ? @array : \@array. But not when the function has a prototype of (&@).

I find return @array; annoying, unless the function warns or dies in scalar context. Again, an exception is made for map-ish functions.

I often use void context for mutating values: (Or: The function becomes a procedure in void context) 

my @bar = encode @foo;  # mutated copy in @bar
my $bar = encode @foo;  # mutated copy in @$bar
encode @foo;            # @foo's elements are now encoded

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This is great when working with a hash of things that are about to be displayed, transmitted, etc: 
my $row = $db->query('select ...')->hash;
encode values %$row;

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Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }

In reply to Re: What should be returned in scalar context? by Juerd
in thread What should be returned in scalar context? by tilly

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