Re^2: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer


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Re^2: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer

by mreece (Friar)

on Nov 24, 2007 at 00:51 UTC ( #652692=note: print w/replies, xml )

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in reply to Re: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer
in thread I think Perl ruined me as a programmer

that min functions looks kinda funny, and in some ways manages to expose the dangers of writing lazy (ie, terse) perl.

sub min {
    my $min = shift;
    foreach (@_) {
        $_ = $min if $_ < $min;
    }
    return $min;
}

@a = (10, 5, 8, 2, 1, -4);
$min = min(@a);
print "min of @a is $min\n";
[download]

produces: min of 10 10 10 10 10 10 is 10

probably not what you expected! not only did it give the wrong answer, it destroyed the input list!

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Re^3: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer by Anonymous Monk on Nov 14, 2008 at 23:51 UTC
The function should be: `sub min { my $min = shift; foreach (@_) { $min = $_ if $_ < $min; } return $min; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer by Anonymous Monk on Apr 12, 2010 at 05:36 UTC
or, to avoid warnings about the occasional undefs in your arg list: `sub min { my $min; for (@_) { next unless defined; $min = $_ if $_ < $min } $min }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: I think Perl ruined me as a programmer by Anonymous Monk on Apr 12, 2010 at 05:45 UTC
oops, sorry.. `sub min { my $r; for (@_) { next unless defined; $r = $_ if !defined($r) \|\| $_ < $r } $r }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]

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