comment on

It's the typical trim(), with optional in-place behavior, and $_ argument defaulting.

sub trim {
  @_ = $_ if not @_ and defined wantarray;
  @_ = @_ if defined wantarray;
  for (@_ ? @_ : $_) { s/^\s+//, s/\s+$// }
  return wantarray ? @_ : $_[0] if defined wantarray;
}

trim;               # trims $_ inplace
$new = trim;        # trims (and returns) a copy of $_
trim $str;          # trims $str inplace
$new = trim $str;   # trims (and returns) a copy of $str
trim @list;         # trims @list inplace
@new = trim @list;  # trims (and returns) a copy of @list
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In reply to trim() magic by japhy

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