use the following file prefix, this will add to your perl script eTRUE and eFALSE, it will actually be REAL(!) true and false (just like java)
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use constant { #real true false, compatible with encode_json decode_json for later (we don't want field:false... will be field:0...)
eTRUE => bless( do{\(my $o = 1)}, 'JSON::PP::Boolean' ),
eFALSE => bless( do{\(my $o = 0)}, 'JSON::PP::Boolean' )
};
There are, actually, few reasons why you should use that.
My reason is that working with JSON, I've got 0 and 1 as values to keys, but this hack will make sure correct values are kept along your script.
The most complete, concise definition of false I've come across is:
Anything that stringifies to the empty string or the string
0
is false. Everything else is true.
Therefore, the following values are false:
Keep in mind that an empty list literal evaluates to an undefined value in scalar context, so it evaluates to something false.
A note on "true zeroes"
While numbers that stringify to 0
are false, strings that numify to zero aren't necessarily. The only false strings are 0
and the empty string. Any other string, even if it numifies to zero, is true.
The following are strings that are true as a boolean and zero as a number:
"0.0"
"0E0"
"00"
"+0"
"-0"
" 0"
"0\n"
".0"
"0."
"0 but true"
"\t00"
"\n0e1"
"+0.e-9"
Scalar::Util::looks_like_number
returns false. (e.g. "abc"
)Perl doesn't have a native boolean type, but you can use comparison of integers or strings in order to get the same behavior. Alan's example is a nice way of doing that using comparison of integers. Here's an example
my $boolean = 0;
if ( $boolean ) {
print "$boolean evaluates to true\n";
} else {
print "$boolean evaluates to false\n";
}
One thing that I've done in some of my programs is added the same behavior using a constant:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use constant false => 0;
use constant true => 1;
my $val1 = true;
my $val2 = false;
print $val1, " && ", $val2;
if ( $val1 && $val2 ) {
print " evaluates to true.\n";
} else {
print " evaluates to false.\n";
}
print $val1, " || ", $val2;
if ( $val1 || $val2 ) {
print " evaluates to true.\n";
} else {
print " evaluates to false.\n";
}
The lines marked in "use constant" define a constant named true that always evaluates to 1, and a constant named false that always evaluates by 0. Because of the way that constants are defined in Perl, the following lines of code fails as well:
true = 0;
true = false;
The error message should say something like "Can't modify constant in scalar assignment."
I saw that in one of the comments you asked about comparing strings. You should know that because Perl combines strings and numeric types in scalar variables, you have different syntax for comparing strings and numbers:
my $var1 = "5.0";
my $var2 = "5";
print "using operator eq\n";
if ( $var1 eq $var2 ) {
print "$var1 and $var2 are equal!\n";
} else {
print "$var1 and $var2 are not equal!\n";
}
print "using operator ==\n";
if ( $var1 == $var2 ) {
print "$var1 and $var2 are equal!\n";
} else {
print "$var1 and $var2 are not equal!\n";
}
The difference between these operators is a very common source of confusion in Perl.
I came across a tutorial which have a well explaination about What values are true and false in Perl. It state that:
Following scalar values are considered false:
undef
- the undefined value0
the number 0, even if you write it as 000 or 0.0''
the empty string.'0'
the string that contains a single 0 digit.All other scalar values, including the following are true:
1
any non-0 number' '
the string with a space in it'00'
two or more 0 characters in a string"0\n"
a 0 followed by a newline'true'
'false'
yes, even the string 'false' evaluates to true.There is another good tutorial which explain about Perl true and false.
I recommend use boolean;
. You have to install the boolean module from cpan though.
My favourites have always been
use constant FALSE => 1==0;
use constant TRUE => not FALSE;
which is completely independent from the internal representation.
Beautiful explanation given by bobf for Boolean values : True or False? A Quick Reference Guide
Truth tests for different values
Result of the expression when $var is:
Expression | 1 | '0.0' | a string | 0 | empty str | undef
--------------------+--------+--------+----------+-------+-----------+-------
if( $var ) | true | true | true | false | false | false
if( defined $var ) | true | true | true | true | true | false
if( $var eq '' ) | false | false | false | false | true | true
if( $var == 0 ) | false | true | true | true | true | true
Source: Stackoverflow.com