http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=856483


in reply to Perl Style: Is initializing variables considered taboo?

I cut my teeth on C so I suppose that's why I never assume any variable has a value until I give it one.

my $var = undef; means that I plan to use $var and I care that the value is undef.
my $var; means I plan to set the value later. Usually, I'm just declaring $var in an outer scope and this shows that.