undef and ref to undef

[Uri Guttman]

>>>>> "ID" == Ian Docherty <londonperlmongers at iandocherty.com> writes:

  ID> Why would someone return \undef  rather than undef from a
  ID> function/method and what is the advantage?

  ID> Just something I came across recently that seemed rather odd.

do you mean a plain return() or return( undef )? in some situations you
need to know you have a data tree (even an empty one) and return \undef
will work. dumper can handle it directly and you know you sent back
something concrete vs a return() which returns an implicit undef or
empty list depending on context.

there are probably some other subtle reasons for sending \undef but i am
too crunchy at yapc::na to think of them now.

uri

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