I'd got into the habit of doing this: 
$some_var = $some_possibly_undefined_var || 10

[download]
so that I get a default if the var isn't defined.

But then, genius that I am, I used a more complex version of it like this in an HTML::Template param() assignment. 

$template->param( 
  some_var => $hash{some_possibly_undefined_key} || 10
)

[download]
which doesn't work.

What I've told perl to do is to assign the non-existent variable, or do "10", is that right?

But I don't get a "contant in void context" warning the way I would if I just put: 

10;

[download]
in the middle of my script.

Is there any way I could have caught that?


Nobody says perl looks like line-noise any more
kids today don't know what line-noise IS ...

In reply to What protects me from doing this stupid thing..? by Cody Pendant

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