Lvalue substr - replace part of a string
There are a few strange functions in Perl that can be on the left-hand-side of an assignment. For example if you would like to change the content of a string you can use the 4-parameter version of substr, the 4th parameter being the replacement string, or you can use substr as an Lvalue and assign that string to the 3-parameter version of substr.
substr $text, 14, 7, "jumped from";
and
substr($text, 14, 7) = "jumped from";
make the same changes in $text
Try the examples:
4-parameter substr
use strict; use warnings; use 5.010; my $text = "The black cat climbed the green tree."; substr $text, 14, 7, "jumped from"; say $text;
3-parameter substr as Lvalue
use strict; use warnings; use 5.010; my $text = "The black cat climbed the green tree."; substr($text, 14, 7) = "jumped from"; say $text;
They will both print:
The black cat jumped from the green tree.
Which one to use?
I think the 4-parameter version is much clearer. If you want to make sure others in your team don't use the Lvalue version of substr, you can use Perl::Critic, and make sure the ProhibitLvalueSubstr policy is enabled.
Published on 2014-03-18