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perlsubroutine

Detect how a subroutine is called in Perl

I would like to detect how a subroutine is called so I can make it behave differently depending on each case:

# If it is equaled to a variable, do something:
$var = my_subroutine();

# But if it's not, do something else:
my_subroutine();

Is that possible?

Solution

  • Use wantarray

    if(not defined wantarray) {
    # void context: foo()
}
elsif(not wantarray) {
    # scalar context: $x = foo()
}
else {
    # list context: @x = foo()
}