Re: Mini-Tutorial: Scalar vs List Assignment Operator

[biohisham]

one of the frequently used functions are map and grep, both with a similar syntax and arguments but BLOCK and EXPR in a grep statement are evaluated in a scalar context while in a map statement they are evaluated in a list context, it would be really great if you could address the evaluation differences as you've the assignment one. I don't really know much about the inner working of both functions because I am not as much experienced but I am puzzled by the way list and scalar contexts are presented.

Thanks A lot.

[ikegami]

The purpose of grep is to filter a list. It does so by evaluating a piece of code for each item in the argument list. It wants a yes/no answer from the code it executes, so scalar context is warranted.

The purpose of map is to transform a list. There is no correlation between in the size of the input list and the size of the output list. A given element may be transformed into zero, one or many elements, so list context is warranted.

To tie this back to the subject at hand, this is basically how all operators work:

• If an operator requires exactly one value for an operand (such as either operand of the scalar assignment operator), the operator will impose a scalar context on that operand.
• If an operator requires multiple values for an operand (such as either operand of the list assignment operator), the operator will impose a list context on that operand.