http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=194784


in reply to Re: Re: Re: Memory Use/Garbage Collection: Java vs Perl
in thread Memory Use/Garbage Collection: Java vs Perl

The Perl version needs to concatenate strings, too!
perl -MO=Deparse,-q -e"print qq(I am $x\n)"
produces
print 'I am ' . $x . "\n";
not print ('I am ' , $x , "\n" ).

That is, Perl concatenates the literals and variables together into one string, then calls print with the result.

—John

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Memory Use/Garbage Collection: Java vs Perl
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 03, 2002 at 15:09 UTC

    That's interesting, thanks. Am I correct in my (I'm not sure if it's a memory of something I read somewhere, or an assumption I have formed) that Perl will fold string constants?

    From my (brief and un-expert) look at the byte code produced by javac, it seems to be pushing a new copy of the two constants onto the stack (they could be pointers to a single copy, I can't make up my mind) prior to the call to StringBuffer, at each invokation?

    Whereas I assume that Perl would push a reference to a single copy of each.

    Thinking about that, javac is probably pushing a pointer too.


    Well It's better than the Abottoire, but Yorkshire!
      Am I correct in my (I'm not sure if it's a memory of something I read somewhere, or an assumption I have formed) that Perl will fold string constants?

      Apparently it does not.

      perl -MO=Deparse,-q -e"print qq(I am $x\n) . 'and fold this?'"
      it taken as
      print(('I am ' . $x . "\n") . 'and fold this?');
      not print('I am ' . $x . "\nand fold this?").

      —John

        True, but

        perl -MO=Deparse,-q -e "print 'Hello, ' . 'World'"

        Is parsed as

        print 'Hello, World'; -e syntax OK

        Apparently, the example you gave was more complex than the parser wanted to deal with.

        Update Added -q, as John pointed out below...