Re: Perl Idioms Explained - my $count = () = /.../g

[truedfx]

Just to have it mentioned: another way to do it is given in perldoc -f scalar:

#!perl -l

my $str = "here are some words";
my $count = @{[ $str =~ /\S+/g ]};
print $count;

Personally, I think this makes the meaning clearer, but I'm sure others may disagree.

[japhy]

I'd say "but that builds up and then destroys an array referencce", but I don't know which takes more time, and then I'd say "benchmark it", but this would be a case of micro-optimizing. So I will agree with your intent: use whichever construct is clearer to you.