Re^4: Is there a way to compare strings without using an array? (say)

[Jeri]

in reply to Re^3: Is there a way to compare strings without using an array? (say)
in thread Is there a way to compare strings without using an array?

Why is it necessary to use 'say'? If I took out..

use feature 'say';

and the 'say' in...

 say for $line1 =~ /[$line2]/g;

Why doesn't it work?

[jeffa]

The reason is because say is not (yet) a built-in function. You have to import the function into your namespace first, hence use feature 'say';


Alternatively, you can just use print, which does not implicitly add the new line for you like say does.

print "$_\n" for $line1 =~ /[$line2]/g;

You can also add the -l (dash elle) modifier to your "shebang" line which essentially makes print behave like say:

#!/path/to/perl -l

...

print for $line1 =~ /[$line2]/g;

Hope this helps!

[ikegami]

say is a builtin function since 5.010. feature has never exported say. feature tells the parser that say should use the builtin say instead of the sub say.

[ikegami]

use feature qw( say ); or equivalent is required for backwards compatibility reasons. Many scripts and modules already had a sub named say when say was added to Perl, so it's not available by default in order to avoid breaking these scripts and modules.