This is bad information.
The expression
$expression ? $var = "foo" : $var = "bar";
is only "# WRONG" because of operator precedence (see perlop: Operator Precedence and Associativity). Here's how it is parsed:
$ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e '$expression ? $var = "foo" : $var = "bar";'
(($expression ? ($var = 'foo') : $var) = 'bar');
-e syntax OK
This is explained in perlop: Conditional Operator.
Correcting the precedence with parentheses:
$ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e '$expression ? ($var = "foo") : ($var = "bar"
+);'
($expression ? ($var = 'foo') : ($var = 'bar'));
-e syntax OK
I do not dispute that '$var = $expression ? "foo" : "bar";' is a better way to write '$expression ? ($var = "foo") : ($var = "bar");'.
In fact, the documentation also recommends this.
Once corrected as indicated, here's how your "# WRONG" code behaves:
#!/usr/bin/env perl -l
use strict;
use warnings;
for my $expression (0, 1) {
my $var = '';
$expression ? ($var = 'foo') : ($var = 'bar');
print "\$expression = '$expression'; \$var = '$var'";
}
Output:
$expression = '0'; $var = 'bar'
$expression = '1'; $var = 'foo'
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