"be consistent" | |
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Re: What does return() mean?by pvaldes (Chaplain) |
on Oct 27, 2014 at 22:36 UTC ( [id://1105222]=note: print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
Well, a more interesting question could be what is the difference between saying 'return ()' or just 'return'. If you do not provide a return last line, your function will exit with an empty list in list context: '()'. If you provide a value (or an appropriate expression like: print "2") you exit with this value, examples: return 2 -> 2; return ()-> the empty list So your function is the same as: sub myfunc{}; that does... nothing: perl -e 'sub myfunc{}; my @var = (1,2,3,4); myfunc(@var); print join(",",@var),"\n"' perl -e 'sub myfunc{return}; my @var = (1,2,3,4); myfunc(@var); print join(",",@var),"\n"' perl -e 'sub myfunc{return ()}; my @var = (1,2,3,4); myfunc(@var); print join(",",@var),"\n"' perl -e 'sub foo{return ()}; my %hash = (1 => 2, 3 => 4); foo(%hash); while (my ($k, $v)=each %hash){print "$k,$v\n"};'But, such "nothing" functions can still do something:
you can use undef $var for the same purpose
In Section
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