Yet another List Versus Scalar Context Meditation

[tphyahoo]

#scalar versus array context with reverse.
# see http://prometheus.frii.com/%7Egnat/yapc/2000-stages/slide16.html
# for where I began playing with this idea...
use warnings;
use strict;

#scalar context, because there's a scalar on the left.
my $reverse_gnat = reverse("gnat","bang"); 

print "1:";
print $reverse_gnat; #gnabtang 
print "\n";

my @reverse_gnat = reverse("gnat","bang");

print "2:";
#list context, because there's an array on the left.
print @reverse_gnat; #banggnat 
print "\n";

print "3:";
#scalar context (because of the dot operator, I guess)
print @reverse_gnat . "\n"; #2, the number of elements in the array

# Commas and dots in print statements *ain't* the same...

print "4:";
#list context, I guess that's the default for print.
print reverse ("gnat", "bang", "\n"); #newline, then bang gnat
print "\n";

# leave out the parenthesis, gnatbang\n is the only item in the list
# so the effect is nothing happens
print "5:";
print reverse "gnat" . "bang" . "\n"; #gnatbang

print "6:";
#reverse forced into scalar context by the dot operator
print reverse ("gnat") . "bang" . "\n"; #tangbang

#few more examples for review.

print "7:";
print reverse ("gnat") . "\n"; #tang

print "8:";
print reverse "gnat" . "\n"; #gnat

print "9:";
print reverse "gnat" , "\n"; #newline, then gnat