NAME

       Perl::Critic::Policy::Plicease::ProhibitArrayAssignAref - Don't assign an anonymous arrayref to an array

VERSION

       version 100.00

DESCRIPTION

       This policy is a fork of Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitArrayAssignAref.  It differs
       from the original by not having a dependency on List::MoreUtils.  It is unfortunately still licensed as
       GPL3.

       It asks you not to assign an anonymous arrayref to an array

           @array = [ 1, 2, 3 ];       # bad

       The idea is that it's rather unclear whether an arrayref is intended, or might have meant to be a list
       like

           @array = ( 1, 2, 3 );

       This policy is under the "bugs" theme (see "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic) for the chance "[]" is a
       mistake, and since even if it's correct it will likely make anyone reading it wonder.

       A single arrayref can still be assigned to an array, but with parens to make it clear,

           @array = ( [1,2,3] );       # ok

       Dereferences or array and hash slices (see "Slices" in perldata) are recognised as an array target and
       treated similarly,

           @$ref = [1,2,3];            # bad assign to deref
           @{$ref} = [1,2,3];          # bad assign to deref
           @x[1,2,3] = ['a','b','c'];  # bad assign to array slice
           @x{'a','b'} = [1,2];        # bad assign to hash slice

   List Assignment Parens
       This policy is not a blanket requirement for "()" parens on array assignments.  It's normal and
       unambiguous to have a function call or "grep" etc without parens.

           @array = foo();                    # ok
           @array = grep {/\.txt$/} @array;   # ok

       The only likely problem from lack of parens in such cases is that the "," comma operator has lower
       precedence than "=" (see perlop), so something like

           @array = 1,2,3;   # oops, not a list

       means

           @array = (1);
           2;
           3;

       Normally the remaining literals in void context provoke a warning from Perl itself.

       An intentional single element assignment is quite common as a statement, for instance

           @ISA = 'My::Parent::Class';   # ok

       And for reference the range operator precedence is high enough,

           @array = 1..10;               # ok

       But of course parens are needed if concatenating some disjoint ranges with the comma operator,

           @array = (1..5, 10..15);      # parens needed

       The "qw" form gives a list too

           @array = qw(a b c);           # ok

SEE ALSO

       Perl::Critic
       Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitArrayAssignAref

HOME PAGE

       <https://github.com/uperl/Perl-Critic-Policy-Plicease-ProhibitArrayAssignAref>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 Kevin Ryde

       Perl-Critic-Policy-Plicease-ProhibitArrayAssignAref  is  free  software;  you  can redistribute it and/or
       modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
       either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

       Perl-Critic-Policy-Plicease-ProhibitArrayAssignAref is distributed in the hope that it  will  be  useful,
       but  WITHOUT  ANY  WARRANTY;  without  even  the  implied  warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
       PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Perl-Critic-Policy-Plicease-
       ProhibitArrayAssignAref.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses>.

AUTHOR

       Original author: Kevin Ryde

       Current maintainer: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is Copyright (c) 2011-2021 by Kevin Ryde.

       This is free software, licensed under:

         The GNU General Public License, Version 3, June 2007

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-03-02              Perl::Critic::...ArrayAssignAref(3pm)