Re: exists $foo[7] and delete $foo[7]

[pete@horus.cix.co.uk (Pete Jordan)]

Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@ActiveState.com> wrote:

> If we made scalar(@foo) only count the initialized valuse (a.k.a values
> that exist), the following code will break:
> 
>     $foo[3] = 4;  # @foo[0,1,2] are uninitialized, even in perl 5.005
>     if (@foo > 2) {
>         ...
>     }

Ahh. Good point, that chap.

> I don't think we can do it.  Besides, it possibly reads better to extend
> values() to do that instead.

C<scalar @array> /would/ be better IMO, but C<values(@array)> would do the 
trick.

I know this is all just a side effect of pseudo-hashes, but I /like/ the 
idea. There is a qualitative difference between undefined and entirely 
absent as undefined is a value that a scalar can hold.

/Pete/

"THIS IS THE COMPATIBILITY POLICE.
 RESTORE YOUR ORIGINAL TOKE.C AND BACK AWAY SLOWLY."

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Follow-Ups from:

Tom Christiansen <tchrist@chthon.perl.com>

References to:

Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@ActiveState.com>

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