Benjamin Goldberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> H.Merijn Brand wrote:
> >
> > On Wed 18 Dec 2002 10:45, Slaven Rezic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Benjamin Goldberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > >
> > > > I've seen on comp.lang.perl.misc, a number of times that clooless
> > > > programmers do stuff like:
> > > >
> > > > $string =~ /something/;
> > > > print $1;
> > > >
> > > > Where a regex is performed, and no check is made to whether it
> > > > succeeds or not, and then a dollar-digit variable is used.
> > > >
> > > > Does it seem like a reasonable idea to make regex matching in void
> > > > context produce a warning?
> > >
> > > Maybe the user wants to use just $&, $` or $':
> > >
> > > $string =~ /something/;
> > > print $&;
>
> But if the match fails, then $& will not be properly set. Without the
> user checking what =~// evaluates to (that is, the match operation was
> performed in void context), he cannot discover that the match has
> failed. If he doesn't know the match failed, and cannot know that $&
> isn't properly set.
Maybe he *knows* that the match always succeeds (e.g. because of
former matches) and wants only to extract something from the string.
Regards,
Slaven
--
Slaven Rezic - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
tkrevdiff - graphical display of diffs between revisions (RCS or CVS)
http://ptktools.sourceforge.net/#tkrevdiff
