Re: looking for a good idiom: return this if this is true

[redlemon]

if you wouldn't mind refactoring thatroutine, this works:

sub thatroutine(\$) { # do something to ${$_[0]} }

sub thisroutine
{
     return $_ if thatroutine local $_;
     ...
     my $namedvar;
     return $namedvar if thatroutine $namedvar;
}

Ugly as hell but it appears to work.