in reply to A Perl aptitude test

If you want, you can make it trickier.
Example: Question 1:
print (print (2 * 3) + 3);

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artist

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Re: Re: A Perl aptitude test
by silent11 (Vicar) on May 02, 2003 at 17:50 UTC
    I get 64. Why?

    -silent11
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      You actually get a "6" followed by a "4".

      print (print (2 * 3) + 3);

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      The inner print(2 * 3) is evaluated first: it prints 6, and returns the value "1" because the print succeeded. 1 + 3 is 4, so the outer print prints 4. There were no delimiters between the two digits, so they look like one number instead of two sequential digits.

      This brings up the original trick question quite nicely: the parentheses on print (2 * 3) + 3 make print() look like a function call, they aren't simply an arithmetic grouping operator in this case.

      Alan

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Re: Re: A Perl aptitude test
by Jonathan (Curate) on May 02, 2003 at 16:06 UTC
    hmmmm, I think they'd get it right by accident :-). As it stands no one has yet got the original correct so I don't think trying to make it harder is quite what I'm looking for!
    Question 1 is (IMO) a waste of time. I'm embarassed about it.
    Cheers anyway.

    Jah
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