FAQ 4.37 What's wrong with always quoting "$vars"?
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From: PerlFAQ Server on 13 Aug 2010 06:00 This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq4.pod, which comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org . -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.37: What's wrong with always quoting "$vars"? The problem is that those double-quotes force stringification--coercing numbers and references into strings--even when you don't want them to be strings. Think of it this way: double-quote expansion is used to produce new strings. If you already have a string, why do you need more? If you get used to writing odd things like these: print "$var"; # BAD $new = "$old"; # BAD somefunc("$var"); # BAD You'll be in trouble. Those should (in 99.8% of the cases) be the simpler and more direct: print $var; $new = $old; somefunc($var); Otherwise, besides slowing you down, you're going to break code when the thing in the scalar is actually neither a string nor a number, but a reference: func(\@array); sub func { my $aref = shift; my $oref = "$aref"; # WRONG } You can also get into subtle problems on those few operations in Perl that actually do care about the difference between a string and a number, such as the magical "++" autoincrement operator or the syscall() function. Stringification also destroys arrays. @lines = `command`; print "@lines"; # WRONG - extra blanks print @lines; # right -------------------------------------------------------------------- The perlfaq-workers, a group of volunteers, maintain the perlfaq. They are not necessarily experts in every domain where Perl might show up, so please include as much information as possible and relevant in any corrections. The perlfaq-workers also don't have access to every operating system or platform, so please include relevant details for corrections to examples that do not work on particular platforms. Working code is greatly appreciated. If you'd like to help maintain the perlfaq, see the details in perlfaq.pod. |