Perl::...ignAref(3pm)

💖 Perl::...ignAref 💖

okay bestie, so this page lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the manual, and it's giving Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitArrayAssignAref. yes that name is a whole mouthful, we know, slay anyway ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitArrayAssignAref — bestie please do NOT assign an anonymous arrayref to an array. that's the whole thing. that's the vibe. 💅

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this policy is part of the Perl::Critic::Pulp add-on, and its one (1) job is gently asking you not to assign an anonymous arrayref to an array:

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

like… why. the whole point is that it's lowkey unclear whether you actually meant an arrayref, or whether you were trying to write a plain old list like

@array = ( 1, 2, 3 );

and got lost along the way 😭

this policy is filed under the "bugs" theme (peep "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic) because there's a real chance that [] is just a mistake — and even when it's correct, it's gonna make anyone reading your code stop and wonder, which is not the main character energy we're going for.

good news though!! a single arrayref can still be assigned to an array — you just need parens to make it crystal clear 💖

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

dereferences, plus array and hash slices (see "Slices" in perldata), all count as an array target and get treated exactly the same way:

@$ref = [1,2,3];            # bad assign to deref
@{$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 🎀

okay important clarification bestie: this policy is NOT a blanket "you must use () parens on every array assignment" rule. no ma'am. it's completely 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 skipping parens in cases like those is that the , comma operator has lower precedence than = (check perlop), so something like

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

actually means

@array = (1);
2;
3;

😭 and normally those leftover literals sitting in void context will provoke a warning from Perl itself, so at least it's not silent.

an intentional single element assignment as a statement is super common though, for instance

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

and for reference: the range operator's precedence is high enough, so you're fine there too

@array = 1..10;               # ok

but of course parens ARE needed if you're concatenating some disjoint ranges with the comma operator:

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

and the qw form gives you a list too, no stress

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

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• Perl::Critic
• Perl::Critic::Pulp

---

🌈 HOME PAGE 🌈

http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html

---

💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

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

Perl-Critic-Pulp 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-Pulp 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-Pulp. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses.

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this one came from perl v5.40.1 and got timestamped 2025-10-21 — it's the Perl::...ignAref(3pm) page, mwah, go write some unambiguous array assignments 💅✨