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

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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 the perlstyle manpage) 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",
    );


Source: Perl FAQ: Perl Language Issues
Copyright: Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
Next: How do I skip some return values?

Previous: What are all these $@%* punctuation signs, and how do I know when to use them?



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