I'm trying to check a variable for validity. If positive, it will keep it's
value, if not, the variable will be emptied (or undefined, or assigned with
something else).

Here's what I have:

#################################
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my ($empty1, $empty2);

my $test = "it contains |";
my $empty = ( ($test =~ /\|+/) ? $test : "" );

my $test1 = "it contains |";
($test1 =~ /\|+/) ? $empty1 = $test : undef $empty1;

my $test2 = "it contains |";
($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? $empty2 = $test : $empty2 = "it doesn't contain |";

print "$empty, $empty1, $empty2\n";
#################################

It prints: "it contains |, it contains |, it doesn't contain |"

The first two tests did work ok.
I just don't understand why the third test doesn't work as expected.

I looked for "perldoc -q operators" and found out:

     Although it has the same precedence as in C, Perl's "?:"
     operator produces an lvalue.  This assigns $x to either $a
     or $b, depending on the trueness of $maybe:

         ($maybe ? $a : $b) = $x;

But it doesn't talk about the way I did it for the second and third test.

Christian

cc> my $test2 = "it contains |";
cc> ($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? $empty2 = $test : $empty2 = "it doesn't contain |";

cc> print "$empty, $empty1, $empty2\n";
cc> #################################

cc> It prints: "it contains |, it contains |, it doesn't contain |"

cc> The first two tests did work ok.
cc> I just don't understand why the third test doesn't work as expected.

Parentheses are always helpful...what you've got is being
evaluated as:

  ($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? ($empty2 = ($test : $empty2 = "it doesn't contain |"));

To be sure, add parens:

  ($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? ($empty2 = $test) : ($empty2 = "it doesn't contain |");

...cj

--
------------------------
-- Christopher J. White                                    
--

--   grierwhite.com
------------------------

You can override it with parens to get what you want:

  ($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? $empty2 = $test2 : ($empty2 = "it doesn't contain |");

But I would count that use an abuse of the ?: operator, because
it contains side effects (assignment).

is where the precedence table is.

Note that ?: is higher precedence than assignment.

--
    Tad McClellan                          SGML consulting

    Fort Worth, Texas

  $empty2 = ($test2 =~ /\|+/) ? $test : "it doesn't contain |";

        -Joe

--
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