Re: commify_series script in cookbook page 94

my $sepchar = grep( /,/ => @_ ) ? ";" : ",";

And I also don't understand what ";" is doing in the ternary operator??
The ";" is what is returned if the condition is TRUE.

"( / ,/ => @_)" is a(n anonymous) hash. I've had no idea that grep can
operate on a hash.
However, it seems that "grep( / ,/ => @_)" and "grep( / ,/, @_)" are equivalent.
__CODE__
@a = qw/aa ab ba bb/;
print join(", ", grep(/a/, @a) );
print "\n";
print join(", ", grep(/a/ => @a) );
print "\n";
__END__
aa, ab, ba
aa, ab, ba

@_ is a list/array, and that is what grep is searching for the RegEx / ,/.
@_ is the arguments passed into the current function/sub.
In this context, grep is being used in a scalar context. So it returns
the number of times that "the expression is true", ie the number of
elements that contain a " ,". In a TRUE/FALSE context, it returns
whether any of the passed arguments have a " ,". If there is a " ," in
one of the arguments, the $sepchar is set to ";". Otherwise it is set
to ",".

HTH!
.

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