http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=341429


in reply to Lexicals in if() scope gotcha!

Update: This node is based on a mistake, the statements below are false. See Re: Re: Lexicals in if() scope gotcha!.

I fell through this trap when I wrote something like this:

for my $n (1..256) { .... do something .... } for my $n (1..32) { ... do sthg else ... }
and I got a warning for redefining $n.

The difference is that as for localizes the looping variable (even if it's not my, but a global), it's just stupid to have it outside the loop's scope. It might be useful to access it after the loop when you're writing a for(;;) loop or an if() conditional.

While this is a bit counter-intuitive for me too, it does have some logic. Perl is just not C++ (where you can put a declaration in the first argument of for(;;;)).

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Re: Re: Lexicals in if() scope gotcha!
by liz (Monsignor) on Mar 31, 2004 at 21:49 UTC
    Are you sure?
    use strict; use warnings; foreach my $foo (1..10 ) { print $foo } foreach my $foo (1..10 ) { print $foo } __END__ 1234567891012345678910
    I'm not seeing any errors or warnings using Perl's from 5.6.2 -> 5.9.0. I would be surprised if it would produce any warnings or errors, as this is an idiom that I use myself from time to time (without warnings, I might add).

    Liz

      Ok, you're right. I can't reproduce the error now, so I must have made some error like declaring $n inside the for loop's body or something like that.

      Thanks for clarifying this.