http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1040636


in reply to Test if multiple variables are defined

One More Way to Do It: grep:

>perl -wMstrict -le "my ($foo, $bar); my ($no_ws, $some_ws, $lotsa_ws) = ('no_ws', ' some_ws ', ' lotsa ws '); printf qq{'$_' } for $no_ws, $some_ws, $lotsa_ws; print ''; ;; s{ \A \s+ | \s+ \z }''xmsg for grep defined, $no_ws, $foo, $some_ws, $bar, $lotsa_ws; printf qq{'$_' } for $no_ws, $some_ws, $lotsa_ws; " 'no_ws' ' some_ws ' ' lotsa ws ' 'no_ws' 'some_ws' 'lotsa ws'

Update: However,  grep as used above has the disadvantage of creating an output list that may be the same size as the input list; Perl then has twice as much data to deal with.

The advantage of a looping statement like
    defined and s/^\s+|\s+$//g for LIST;
is that the elements of  LIST are operated on in place and no new list is created.