Category: perl

Use the return value from srand

[This is another bonus, mid-week item since it’s so short and probably mostly useless as a tweak to what you already do.]

Perl 5.14 changes srand to return the seed that it used to start the pseudorandom number generator that gives you numbers through rand. There are plenty of interwebs that will explain the difference between real randomness and the sort that you get from computers, but for this item, suffice it to say that the numbers you get from perl are completely deterministic. If you start with the same seed, you get the same sequence. Continue reading “Use the return value from srand”

Let perl create your regex stringification

Perl 5.14 changes how regular expression objects stringify. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but it exposes a certain sort of bug that you may have never considered. It even broke several modules on CPAN. If you previously tested for hard-coded stringifications of patterns, Perl 5.14 is probably going to break your code. Continue reading “Let perl create your regex stringification”

Set default values with the defined-or operator.

[This is a mid-week bonus Item since it’s so short]

Prior to Perl 5.10, you had to be a bit careful checking a Perl variable before you set a default value. An uninitialized value and a defined but false value both acted the same in the logical || short-circuit operator. The Perl idiom to set a default value looks like this: Continue reading “Set default values with the defined-or operator.”

Specify any character by its octal ordinal value.

Perl 5.14 gives you some new ways to represent characters so you can avoid some annoying and ambiguous interpolations. Not only that, the new syntax unifies the different ordinal representations so you can specify characters using the same syntax even if you want to use different bases. This feature was added in Perl 5.13.3, in the development branch leading to the next stable version. Continue reading “Specify any character by its octal ordinal value.”

Use the /r substitution flag to work on a copy

How many times has this happened to you? You want to modify each element of an array so you send it through a map (Item 20. Use foreach, map, and grep as appropriate.). However, instead of your expected output, you only to get a bunch of numbers or empty strings back? For example, in this case, some digits got into the names of the cats and you want to remove them with a substitution: Continue reading “Use the /r substitution flag to work on a copy”

Use branch reset grouping to number captures in alternations

Perl’s regular expressions have a simple rule for capturing groups. It counts the order of left parentheses to assign capture variables. Not all capture groups must actually match parts of the string, and Perl doesn’t care if they do. Perl assigns capture groups inside an alternation consecutively, even though it knows that only one branch of the alternation will match. Perl 5.10 adds the branch reset, (?|alternation) which mitigates that, though. Continue reading “Use branch reset grouping to number captures in alternations”

Use when() as a statement modifier

Perl 5.10 introduced the given-when statement, and Perl 5.12 refines it slightly by letting you use the when as a statement modifier. A statement modifier puts the conditional expression at the end of the statement (see perlsyn). You’ve probably already used many of these: Continue reading “Use when() as a statement modifier”

Perl 5.14 new features

The Perl 5 Porters released 5.14. By reading the perldelta51[34]* documentation, you can see what’s new in this maintenance version of Perl. David Golden, one of the Perl 5.13 release managers, put together what he’s calling the perldeltadelta, which is just the most interesting bits of the longish perl*delta files for Perl 5.13, the experimental track that led up to Perl 5.14. He’s covered most of the interesting bits. Continue reading “Perl 5.14 new features”