SPUG: "Boolean" return values

[Ronald J Kimball]

On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 08:08:37AM -0700, Michael R. Wolf wrote:
> In practice, most strings are true.  I know of only 3 false strings:
>  1. '', the empty string
>  2. '0', the string containing only a single zero
>  3. "\000", the ASCII NUL character (AKA chr(0)).
> 

There are only two false strings.  "\000" is true.

This is explained very succinctly in the documentation, specifically
perlsyn:

  Truth and Falsehood

  The number 0, the strings '0' and '', the empty list "()", and
  "undef" are all false in a boolean context. All other values are
  true.  Negation of a true value by "!" or "not" returns a special
  false value.  When evaluated as a string it is treated as '', but as
  a number, it is treated as 0.


Ronald