FAQ 7.3 Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and commas?

This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq7.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

--------------------------------------------------------------------

7.3: Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and commas?

Normally, a bareword doesn't need to be quoted, but in most cases
probably should be (and must be under "use strict"). But a hash key
consisting of a simple word (that isn't the name of a defined
subroutine) and the left-hand operand to the "=>" operator both count as
though they were quoted:

This is like this
------------ ---------------
$foo{line} $foo{'line'}
bar => stuff 'bar' => stuff

The final semicolon in a block is optional, as is the final comma in a
list. Good style (see perlstyle) says to put them in except for
one-liners:

if ($whoops) { exit 1 }
@nums = (1, 2, 3);

if ($whoops) {
exit 1;
}

@lines = (
"There Beren came from mountains cold",
"And lost he wandered under leaves",
);

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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PerlFAQ Server wrote:
> This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq7.pod, which
> comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
> reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
> to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
> perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 7.3: Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and
> commas?
>
> Normally, a bareword doesn't need to be quoted, but in most cases
> probably should be (and must be under "use strict"). But a hash key
> consisting of a simple word (that isn't the name of a defined
> subroutine) and the left-hand operand to the "=>" operator both
> count as though they were quoted:
>
> This is like this
> ------------ ---------------
> $foo{line} $foo{'line'}
> bar => stuff 'bar' => stuff

Shouldn't this be:

bar => 'stuff' 'bar' => 'stuff'

?

Thanks again for the wonderful documentation you people have put a lot
of time into.

--
szr

In article <frvbvv02rob@news2.newsguy.com>, szr <szrRE@szromanMO.comVE>
wrote:

> > 7.3: Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and
> > commas?

> > This is like this
> > ------------ ---------------
> > $foo{line} $foo{'line'}
> > bar => stuff 'bar' => stuff
>
> Shouldn't this be:
>
> bar => 'stuff' 'bar' => 'stuff'

It's not the literal string 'stuff', just a placeholder. It's just, um,
stuff.

brian d foy wrote:
> In article <frvbvv02rob@news2.newsguy.com>, szr
> <szrRE@szromanMO.comVE> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>>> 7.3: Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons
>>> and commas?
>
>
>>> This is like this
>>> ------------ ---------------
>>> $foo{line} $foo{'line'}
>>> bar => stuff 'bar' => stuff
>>
>> Shouldn't this be:
>>
>> bar => 'stuff' 'bar' => 'stuff'
>
> It's not the literal string 'stuff', just a placeholder. It's just,
> um, stuff.

I figured as much, though I don't think being that loose is a good idea
for an FAQ example snippet of code. I may understand what you meant, as
do you and many others, but I still think care should be taken in
situations like this where code could too easily be misread by those
it's meant to help :-)

--
szr

FAQ 7.3 Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons and commas? - Perl

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