note Anonymous Monk Yep, that is right and it works the way it reads. <code> perl -e "my $shoo = 50; $shoo ||= 100; print $shoo;" </code> Prints <code> 50 </code> Should be the same as, <code> perl -e "$shoo=50; $shoo = ($shoo)?50 : 100;print $shoo;" </code> If you scroll down in perlop you'll see that style used to describe what <code>//</code> does, so they appear to be equivalent. <!-- Node text goes above. Div tags should contain sig only --> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-45622"> <P><I>Celebrate Intellectual Diversity</I> </div></div> 980650 980650 9