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Diffstat (limited to 'pod/perlsub.pod')
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perlsub.pod | 14 |
1 files changed, 11 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perlsub.pod b/pod/perlsub.pod index f2a5b8ff0f..6e2309dfb2 100644 --- a/pod/perlsub.pod +++ b/pod/perlsub.pod @@ -47,9 +47,17 @@ there's really no difference from the language's perspective.) Any arguments passed to the routine come in as the array @_. Thus if you called a function with two arguments, those would be stored in C<$_[0]> -and C<$_[1]>. The array @_ is a local array, but its values are implicit -references (predating L<perlref>) to the actual scalar parameters. The -return value of the subroutine is the value of the last expression +and C<$_[1]>. The array @_ is a local array, but its elements are +aliases for the actual scalar parameters. In particular, if an element +C<$_[0]> is updated, the corresponding argument is updated (or an error +occurs if it is not updatable). If an argument is an array or hash +element which did not exist when the function was called, that element is +created only when (and if) it is modified or if a reference to it is +taken. (Some earlier versions of Perl created the element whether or not +it was assigned to.) Note that assigning to the whole array @_ removes +the aliasing, and does not update any arguments. + +The return value of the subroutine is the value of the last expression evaluated. Alternatively, a return statement may be used to specify the returned value and exit the subroutine. If you return one or more arrays and/or hashes, these will be flattened together into one large |