boolean return (was Re: cpan you have to see)

[Uri Guttman]

On 12/12/2012 12:57 PM, Joseph Werner wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Gareth Harper <spansh+london at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> PBP and I disagree with you on this one, Gareth. When a sub does a
> "return 0;" to a list context, that is interpreted as true.  A bare
> "return;" is best practice.

and i support that as well. the argument i get from the other side is 
when calling foo() in a list context that needs a scalar like a hash value:

	sub foo { ... return if $bad }
	%bar = ( foo => foo() ) ;		# fail

my counter answer is to use scalar there:

	%bar = ( foo => scalar foo() ) ;

the win here is letting the caller decide on the context of the boolean 
return. if you do a return undef (or 0 or '') then the caller can't ever 
use the sub in a list context expecting an empty list, it always gets a 
scalar. a plain return works in all contexts and lets the caller force a 
scalar when needed.

uri