my $key = $institution
&& ($valid_institution{lc($institution)} || "other")
|| "unaffiliated";
When I'm doing code review for hire, I do not permit using
testthing && truething || falsething in production code unless there's also a big comment in the margin that says literally:
## I'm promising that the true branch here can NEVER EVER EVER
## return a false value, which would have caused the
## false branch to be erroneously executed. If you're
## updating this code, please continue to maintain
## this precondition, which I have placed precariously
## and needlessly in this code. Have a nice day.
If you don't want to add a big friggin' comment like that, then change the very dangerous broken and-or construct to the entirely safe
testthing ? truething : falsething, as in:
my $key = $institution
? ($valid_institution{lc($institution)} || "other")
: "unaffiliated";
-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker