From: Tim Hammerquist <penryu@...>
Date: 2005-12-09T06:32:36+09:00
Subject: Re: They say I write Ruby like Perl

Elf M. Sternberg <elf@drizzle.com> wrote:
> So the wording is "Variables are created when they're first
> assigned", as in Python or Perl?

Perl takes this a bit farther, and calls it autovivification.
(It's a very useful feature when needed, but can be confusing.

Aside from the standard "assignmeng" such as:

    $string = "a string";
    @array = qw/ a list of stuff /;

Which both declare and define a scalar varable, and an array,
respectively.

Perl will also do:

    $other_array[3] = "arbitrary stuff";
    $some_hash{name} = "random j. programmer";

The first statement will at once: (1) create an array
@other_array and (2) set it's fourth element to a string.  The
second statement will at once (1) create a hash %some_hash, and
(2) assign a string value to it's "name" key.

This feature is used less since the 'use strict;' pragma has
become such an habitual feature in scripts.

Cheers,
Tim Hammerquist