Is delete idempotent?
Yes for hash elements. It does not even appear to reset the hash's iterator (which I find surprising).
$ perl -E'%h=(a=>1,b=>1,c=>1); while (my ($k) = each(%h)) { say $k; }'
c
a
b
$ perl -E'%h=(a=>1,b=>1,c=>1); while (my ($k) = each(%h)) { say $k; de
+lete $h{d}; }'
c
a
b
Yes for array elements. It doesn't extend the array up to the element to delete.
$ perl -E'my @a = (4,5); say 0+@a; delete $a[10]; say 0+@a;'
2
2
(Using delete on array element is documented as being deprecated.)
if I try to delete something that either never existed
Not a problem.
$ perl -E'my %h; delete $h{x}; say "ok";'
ok
or has already been deleted
Not a problem.
$ perl -E'my %h = (x=>1); delete $h{x}; delete $h{x}; say "ok";'
ok
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