use Perl

• It's in the docs (Score:2)

  by davorg (18) <dave@dave.org.uk> on 2004.09.17 15:15 (#34436) Homepage Journal

  From "perldoc -f sprintf":

  Unlike "printf", "sprintf" does not do what you probably mean when you pass it an array as your first argument. The array is given scalar context, and instead of using the 0th element of the array as the format, Perl will use the count of elements in the array as the format, which is almost never useful.

  Reply to This

  • Re:It's in the docs (Score:1)

    by Mr. Muskrat (4572)

    "Perl will use the count of elements in the array as the format, which is almost never useful."

    When would that be useful? I can't think of a single case.
    • Re:It's in the docs (Score:2)

      by vsergu (505)

      To solve some bizarre problem on Fun With Perl?
  • Re:It's in the docs (Score:2)

    by gav (2710)

    Doh! I feel like a moron for looking up the docs for sprintf and not noticing that.

    It's a good example of getting bitten by an unexpected prototype though...
  • Hysterical Raisins (Score:2)

    by schwern (1528)

    I suspect printf and sprintf behave differently because of print/printf's non-standard prototype. sprintf is $@, as it should be. printf should also be $@ except for the filehandle oddity that can't be expressed in prototypes. It could probably be fixed these days but then the Backwards Compatibility Police will come in the night and rearrange your furniture.
    
    Another "print sprintf" vs "printf" surprise I noticed a while ago: printf doesn't honor $\.