Re: sub returning undef

[Stevie-O]

in reply to sub returning undef

One problem I see is that 'undef' is an array of one element.

You should return an empty list: (). That will be treated as false by all conditionals (if unless while until).

[exussum0]

What if () is valid? undef might be better off. i.e. a db error or data error might result in undef, where as if the subroutine runs to success, just there is no data, retunr undef.

Might be better to check for undef to see if an error occured? Just a thought.

[eclark]

It would be more appropriate to die on error, and expect the calling code to trap it using:

eval { 
    # calls go here
};
if ($@) {
    # exception handling here
}

[exussum0]

I tend to save die's for outside of classes. You die and someone doesn't handle it, they get screwed over. At least with an undef, scripts may be able to run to completion... depending on how you code it.