What is the use of $#_?

[rag84dec]

What is $#_??
Please some one explain me....

[numberwhun]

I have checked perldoc.perl.org and didn't find anything. I do know that when you take an array (ie: @ARGV) and you do this: $#ARGV, it returns the number of the last element in the array. So, if you added one to that, you would get the number of elements in the @ARGV array.

With the variable you mentioned above, I could come up with a couple of answers, but have no way of knowing exactly which is correct or if any of them are. I am hoping that either Miller or KevinADC will be able to shed some light on this variable.

Seeing as I cannot find any documentation of it, I wonder if it isn't a typo. Where did you see this used?

Regards,

Jeff

[KevinADC]

You had it correct Jeff:

@_ = (1..9);
print $#_;

It checks the last index number of the system array.

[miller]

@_ is the array used by subroutines for their parameter list. When it comes to referencing it's contents, it works like any other array. You access it's elements by using $_[0], $_[1], ... And you access its largest index by using $#_.

- Miller