#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#use strict;
$|=1;  #Turn off STDOUT Buffering

#  This is wild but Perl has
#  a special string that will evaluate
#  to  a "true", "zero" value and can be used
#  in a numeric computation - even with
#  warnings!

#  This is so obscure that it must be
#  depreciated in favor of the 0E0 notation.
#  I personally wouldn't use this, and I
#  show it just for amusement. This just
#  Perl trivia.

my $str_zero = "0 but true"; ### special string ###
$str_zero += 1;
print "new str_zero is: $str_zero\n";
# No warning, this is the same as 0E0

my $bogus_zero = "0 bogus";
$bogus_zero +=1;
print "bogus_zero plus one is: $bogus_zero\n";
# "works" albeit with a warning

__END__
new str_zero is: 1
Argument "0 bogus" isn't numeric in addition 
   (+) at C:\TEMP\zeroButTrue.pl line 23.
bogus_zero plus one is: 1