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in reply to Stupid mistakes I repeatedly make

my %hash = { };

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I found this used several times in code we'd hired some contractors to do. The infuriating thing was that it actually seems to work... so I ended up looking like a weenie when complaining about the quality of the code.

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Re^2: Stupid mistakes I repeatedly make
by tlm (Prior) on Mar 28, 2005 at 02:40 UTC 

    my %hash = { };

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    I found this used several times in code we'd hired some contractors to do. The infuriating thing was that it actually seems to work...

    You need to start using the -w flag more, my friend (that or use warnings). If you had, then perl would have warned you: 

    % perl -we 'my %hash = { }'               
Reference found where even-sized list expected at -e line 1.

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    the lowliest monk

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Re^2: Stupid mistakes I repeatedly make
by revdiablo (Prior) on Mar 28, 2005 at 00:57 UTC
    The infuriating thing was that it actually seems to work

    Sure, it "works", but it's certainly not right:

    $ perl -MData::Dumper -we 'my %hash = {}; print Dumper \%hash'
Reference found where even-sized list expected at -e line 1.
$VAR1 = {
          'HASH(0x814cc20)' => undef
        };

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    It generates a warning and adds a useless entry to the hash. I can't imagine that's what the contractors wanted to do. :-)

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