Subroutines (Functions)

Subroutines (Functions): &

Perl does not distinguish between subroutines and functions.
A subroutine can return values values in either a list or scalar context.
All subroutines take a list as arguments.
Recursion is possible.

	
sub NAME 
{ 
   STATEMENTS; 
}

Subroutines are invoked using the & (differently than the builtins):

	
&NAME(arg1,arg2,etc);

Or if the subroutine takes no arguments:

&NAME;

Return values are assigned like any other value:

$state = &init(@data);

Without explicit return statement a subroutine return the last assigned value. Example:

	
sub init 
{
   print @_."\n";
   print $_[0]." and ".$_[1]."!";
   return "\nok.\n";

}

$state = init( "me", "you" );
print $state;

Output:

2
me and you!
ok.