From @timbunce

This is a bug report for perl from Tim.Bunce@​pobox.com,

[Please enter your report here]

The wantarray docs don't mention that if wantarray is used inside an
eval { } block then it'll return the context for the block and not
the containing sub.

$ perl -l -we 'sub foo { eval { print (wantarray ? "list" : "scalar") };1 }; $a=foo; @​a=foo;'
scalar
scalar

$ perl -l -we 'sub foo { do { print (wantarray ? "list" : "scalar") };1 }; $a=foo; @​a=foo;'
scalar
list

From @rgs

Tim Bunce (via RT) wrote​:

The wantarray docs don't mention that if wantarray is used inside an
eval { } block then it'll return the context for the block and not
the containing sub.

I committed the following patchlet :

Change 22651 by rgs@​valis on 2004/04/05 11​:50​:10

  [perl #28171] wantarray docs should mention effect of eval { wantarray }
  as reported by Tim Bunce. Add a note to this effect in perlfunc,
  and regression tests for it.

Affected files ...

... //depot/perl/pod/perlfunc.pod#432 edit
... //depot/perl/t/op/wantarray.t#4 edit

Differences ...

==== //depot/perl/pod/perlfunc.pod#432 (text) ====

@​@​ -6625,10 +6625,10 @​@​

=item wantarray

-Returns true if the context of the currently executing subroutine is
-looking for a list value. Returns false if the context is looking
-for a scalar. Returns the undefined value if the context is looking
-for no value (void context).
+Returns true if the context of the currently executing subroutine or
+eval() block is looking for a list value. Returns false if the context is
+looking for a scalar. Returns the undefined value if the context is
+looking for no value (void context).

  return unless defined wantarray; # don't bother doing more
  my @​a = complex_calculation();

==== //depot/perl/t/op/wantarray.t#4 (xtext) ====

@​@​ -1,6 +1,6 @​@​
#!./perl

-print "1..9\n";
+print "1..12\n";
sub context {
  my ( $cona, $testnum ) = @​_;
  my $conb = (defined wantarray) ? ( wantarray ? 'A' : 'S' ) : 'V';
@​@​ -31,4 +31,14 @​@​
  print +($c == 2) ? "ok 9\n" : "not ok 9\t# <$c>\n";
}

+my $qcontext = q{
+ $q = (defined wantarray) ? ( wantarray ? 'A' : 'S' ) : 'V';
+};
+eval $qcontext;
+print $q eq 'V' ? "ok 10\n" : "not ok 10\n";
+$a = eval $qcontext;
+print $q eq 'S' ? "ok 11\n" : "not ok 11\n";
+@​a = eval $qcontext;
+print $q eq 'A' ? "ok 12\n" : "not ok 12\n";
+
1;

The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

@rgs - Status changed from 'open' to 'resolved'