Update: added <READMORE> to let others have fun too ;-)
Why does it evaluate to zero
It does not ;-) add a print "\n"; after that and you'll see.

Meaning:
print //;   # pattern-match an empty string. result: 1
print \\//; # ref to ref to variable holding 1 (1)
print \\\//; # ref to ref to ref to variable holding 1 (2)
print \\///\\\//; # print (1) / (2)

[download]

Since references return memory addresses when accessed as numbers, the last line will result in some value close to 1, just a little smaller (this is because (1) is allocated before (2)).

Anyway, that's my guess. Anyone care to point my mistakes?

-mk

In reply to Re: Brain Teaser by marcink
in thread Brain Teaser by srawls

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.