SPUG: "Boolean" return values
Michael R. Wolf
MichaelRWolf at att.net
Mon Oct 13 15:03:26 PDT 2008
Does anyone know the motivation for the return values from the boolean
operators?
true returns (numeric) 1
false returns (string) ''
Why not just 0 and 1? Why the mix of numeric and string?
Is it just one of those "hysterical" (i.e. historically funny) laws of
unintended consequences?
Given that it's usually embedded in an 'if' or 'while' statement, I
really don't care what the return values are, just as long as they work,
but is there some clever use for this non-obvious choice of true and false?
Thanks...
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