Perl Style: Learn to Switch with for

Jan 1, 1998 by Tom Christiansen

• Though Perl has no built-in switch statement, this is not a hardship but an opportunity.

• It’s easy to build one. The word `for’ is sometimes pronounced `switch'.

     SWITCH: for ($where) {
                 /In Card Names/     && do { push @flags, '-e'; last; };
                 /Anywhere/          && do { push @flags, '-h'; last; };
                 /In Rulings/        && do {                    last; };
                 die "unknown value for form variable where: `$where'";
             }
  

• Like a series of elsifs, a switch should always have a default case, even if the default case `can’t happen'.

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Copyright © 1998, Tom Christiansen All rights reserved.