\(1 .. 3) returns a reference to an array.

[p5pRT]

Migrated from rt.perl.org#21624 (status was 'resolved')

Searchable as RT21624$

[p5pRT]

From @abigail

Created by @abigail

There's a discussing in comp.lang.perl.misc which boils down to​:

  print \(1 .. 3);

gives

  ARRAY(0x8175fe8)

which is quite surprising. One would have expected

  SCALAR(0x8175fa0)SCALAR(0x8175fac)SCALAR(0x8175fb8)

which is what

  print \(1\, 2\, 3);

gives.

This might be related to bug #8932.

Perl Info

``` Flags: category=core severity=low Site configuration information for perl v5.8.0: Configured by camel at Mon Oct 28 01:28:45 CET 2002. Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 8 subversion 0) configuration: Platform: osname=linux, osvers=2.4.18-bf2.4, archname=i686-linux-64int-ld uname='linux alexandra 2.4.18-bf2.4 #1 son apr 14 09:53:28 cest 2002 i686 unknown ' config_args='-des -Uversiononly -Dmydomain=.abigail.nl -Dcf_email=camel@abigail.nl -Dperladmin=camel@abigail.nl -Doptimize=-g -Dusemorebits -Dusedevel -Dusenm=false -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Dcc=gcc' hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultiplicity=undef useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef use64bitint=define use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=define usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef Compiler: cc='gcc', ccflags ='-DDEBUGGING -fno-strict-aliasing -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64', optimize='-g', cppflags='-DDEBUGGING -fno-strict-aliasing' ccversion='', gccversion='3.0.4', gccosandvers='' intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678 d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=12 ivtype='long long', ivsize=8, nvtype='long double', nvsize=12, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8 alignbytes=4, prototype=define Linker and Libraries: ld='gcc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib' libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib libs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt -lutil perllibs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt -lutil libc=/lib/libc-2.2.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a gnulibc_version='2.2.5' Dynamic Linking: dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-rdynamic' cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib' Locally applied patches: @INC for perl v5.8.0: /home/abigail/Perl /home/abigail/Sybase /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0/i686-linux-64int-ld /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0 /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0/i686-linux-64int-ld /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0 /opt/perl/lib/site_perl . Environment for perl v5.8.0: HOME=/home/abigail LANG=C LANGUAGE (unset) LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/abigail/Lib:/usr/local/lib:/usr/lib:/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib:/opt/gnome/lib LOGDIR (unset) PATH=/home/abigail/Bin:/opt/perl/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/X11/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/povray/bin:/opt/gnome/bin:/opt/opera/bin:/usr/share/texmf/bin:/opt/Acrobat/bin:/opt/java/blackdown/j2sdk1.3.1/bin:/usr/local/games/bin:/opt/gnuplot/bin:/opt/mysql/bin PERL5LIB=/home/abigail/Perl:/home/abigail/Sybase PERLDIR=/opt/perl PERL_BADLANG (unset) SHELL=/bin/bash ```

[p5pRT]

From enache@rdslink.ro

On Wed\, Mar 19\, 2003 at 10​:09​:52PM -0000\, abigail@​abigail.nl (via RT) wrote​:

print \\\(1 \.\. 3\);

gives

ARRAY\(0x8175fe8\)

I think (that's my humble opinion) that the fact that   print \(1..3) and   my $i=3; print \(1..$i) produce different things is a bug.

However\, the code that takes care that Perl work like that seems to be very deliberate - and very old.

pp_hot.c​:695   if (PL_op->op_flags & OPf_REF) {   SETs((SV*)av);   RETURN;   }   else if (LVRET) {

I failed to see other case that this test covers - removing it (but leaving the if LVRET .. branch there\, of course) gives no test failures ( inutile to say that it makes also \(1..2) return a list of references ..)

More expert advise appreciated.

Regards Adi

[p5pRT]

From @rgs

Fixed by change 19729.

[p5pRT]

@rgs - Status changed from 'new' to 'resolved'