Perl::Critic::Policy::CodeLayout::ProhibitParensWithBuiltins3pm

Affiliation

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

Overview

Conway suggests that all built-in functions be called without parentheses around the argument list. This reduces visual clutter and disambiguates built-in functions from user functions. Exceptions are made for "my", "local", and "our" which require parentheses when called with multiple arguments.

    open($handle, '>', $filename); #not ok
    open $handle, '>', $filename;  #ok
    split(/$pattern/, @list); #not ok
    split /$pattern/, @list;  #ok

Configuration

This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options.

Notes

Coding with parentheses can sometimes lead to verbose and awkward constructs, so I think the intent of Conway's guideline is to remove only the unnecessary parentheses. This policy makes exceptions for some common situations where parentheses are usually required. However, you may find other situations where the parentheses are necessary to enforce precedence, but they cause still violations. In those cases, consider using the '## no critic' comments to silence Perl::Critic.