perlquestion
bounsy
<p>Based on a question from a coworker that is learning Perl, I discovered today that it is possible to read from an array using angle brackets like this:</p>
<code>
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @A = qw/a b c/;
while (my $x = <@A>)
{
print "$x\n";
}
print "@A\n";
</code>
<p>This script prints each element of the list on its own line followed by the entire array on the last line (to prove to myself that the original array was still intact).</p>
<p>So here's the questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is this documented anywhere?</li>
<li>Are there any limitations, gotchas, or risks to using this syntax? (And, if so, what are they?)</li>
<li>Has anyone ever used this syntax in their scripts before?</li>
</ol>
<p>It seems like it could be handy in some cases (maybe?). I've just never seen it before and used to think that it wouldn't work. Now I'm wondering if there are good cases to use it.</p>