John Krahn wrote:
> Debbie Cooper wrote:
> > my @empty = ();
> > my @headings = ();
>
> Aggregate variables created with my() are empty by default so assigning an
> empty list to them is redundant.
>
I hope I am not opening a can of worms by getting into a style
disucssion, and I will preface this entire thread with:
Style is a personal issue; pick one that works for you and be
consistent but not dogmatic. The style must serve you; you do not
serve the style. Read good code, and incorporate stylistic idiom
that suits the task at hand.
I used to be in the habit of always explicitly assigning to EVERY
variable I used upon declaration, and when declaring a variable that I
will use for a hashref or listref, I still do explicitly assign.
# instantiate a hasref to hold data about some person
my $person = {};
# instantiate a listref to hold my family
my $people = [];
$person->{hair} = 'blond';
$person->{name} = 'Lawrence';
$people->[0] = $person;
Of late, I have gotten out of the habit of explicitly initializing
lists or hashes, but I can see doing that piece of extraneous code to
reinforce in the users mind that the list/hash is starting out
virginal.
More often, I defer the declaration of the lexical variable until I
have the list or hash elements available, so I never declare them as
empty.
my $person = { hair => 'blond', name => 'Lawrence' } ;
my $people = [ $person ] ;
Obviously the solution that elides the intermediate $person variable
should be leaping to every reader's mind now.
my $people = [ { hair => 'blond', name => 'Lawrence } ] ;
But these are the stylistic differences that serve to distinguish the
masters from the aprentices.
One begins by teaching the novice the straightforward but verbose
technique, and later the shortcuts.
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>
