On Wed, Oct 09, 2002 at 03:22:20PM -0700, nkuipers wrote:
> The following is from page 75 in the Camel:
>
> "List assignment in scalar context returns the number of elements produced by
> the expression on the <i>right</i> side of the assignment:
>
> $x = ( ($a, $b) = (7,7,7) ); #set $x to 3, not 2
>
> ...."
>
> why. how.
Note that this is the same as
$x = ($a, $b) = (7,7,7);
= is right associative.
($a, $b) = (7,7,7) you already understand. This is the list assignment
mentioned above. It is in a scalar context because of the assignment to
$x, which is a scalar. But "the right side of the assignment" is still
talking about the list assignment, and thus $x gets the number of
elements in (7,7,7), which is 3, not ($a, $b) which would be 2.
This allows you to do useful things like
$x = () = some_function;
which evaluates some_function in list context, and sets $x to the number
of elements returned.
--
Paul Johnson - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.pjcj.net
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