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Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ?

Calab
Novice

Jul 9, 2012, 4:24 AM

Post #1 of 5 (1286 views)

Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ?	Can't Post

Should I predeclare the subroutines that I am using in my perl scripts? If so, what is the correct method to do so? What if the sub is expecting a parameter (or multiple parameters) to be passed to it?

Example:

Code

#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use CGI::Carp qw( fatalsToBrowser ); 
 
sub SayHello(); # Print my HELLO message. 
  
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; 
print "<html><head></head><body>"; 
 
print "Testing... "; 
 
SayHello; 
 
print "</body></html>"; 
 
exit; 
 
sub SayHello () { 
	print "Hello!<br/>\n"; 
}

lukdk
Novice

Jul 9, 2012, 5:05 AM

Post #2 of 5 (1282 views)

Re: [Calab] Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hello,

I've never used predeclaraion of subs.

I always call my subs using something like &SayHello("HELLO WORLD");
You can pass variable(s) this way.

sub SayHello () {
my $parameter=$_;
print "$parameter<br/>\n";
}

it's also possible for arrays.
my @parameter = @_;

FishMonger
Veteran

Jul 9, 2012, 8:11 AM

Post #3 of 5 (1278 views)

Re: [Calab] Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Predeclaring the subs is almost never needed and the majority of the Perl community do not do it. It's considered by most to be "Best Practice" to not predeclare. The only time it's "needed" is when you want to call your sub like a Perl built-in command i.e., without using the parens or sigil such as when you want to write your own version of one of the built-in's and have it override the built-in.

FishMonger
Veteran

Jul 9, 2012, 8:20 AM

Post #4 of 5 (1277 views)

Re: [lukdk] Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Quote

I always call my subs using something like &SayHello("HELLO WORLD");

snip

Quote

sub SayHello () {

Please don't do it that way unless you understand what the side affect is and need that side affect.

It's best practice to not use & when calling a sub, just use the parens.

Prototype definitions, especially empty ones, are almost never needed or wanted.

Code

sub SayHello () { 
my $parameter=$_;

That's not doing what you think. The assignment should have been written as:

Code

my $parameter = shift;

Code

my $parameter = $_[0];

Calab
Novice

Jul 9, 2012, 9:39 PM

Post #5 of 5 (1262 views)

Re: [FishMonger] Very N00B question - Predeclaring SUBs ? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks for the reply. It's appreciated.

I didn't think it was necessary to pre-declare my subs, but I was seeing "called too early to check prototype" warning messages in Eclipse. Pre-declaring my subs seemed to be the best way to deal with the message.

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