[ID 20010327.008] inconsistant return value from split

This is a bug report for perl from darkness@yossman.net,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.26 running under perl 5.00503.


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[Please enter your report here]

If the string to split does not contain the specified delimiter to split on,
split will return a single element list _if, and only if_ the string to split
is non-empty.  If the input string _is_ empty, split returns an empty list,
regardless of the LIMIT specified (ie, even if LIMIT is -1).

Some psuedo-code:

  $str = 'Any non-empty string not containing $delim';
  @result = split($delim, $str, -1);                    # @result == ($str)

  $str = '';
  @result = split($delim, $str, -1);                    # @result != ($str)
                                                        # @result == ()        !!!

I understand that this is maybe not a "bug", per se (depending on your point
of view) but it is non-intuitive behaviour and can cause unexpected results
(such as the BLOCK of a map statement never being called after a split on an
empty string, which would be how I found it).



[Please do not change anything below this line]
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Site configuration information for perl 5.00503:

Configured by root at Wed Feb  2 15:34:50 EST 2000.

Summary of my perl5 (5.0 patchlevel 5 subversion 3) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.2.5-22smp, archname=i386-linux
    uname='linux porky.devel.redhat.com 2.2.5-22smp #1 smp wed jun 2 09:11:51 edt 1999 i686 unknown '
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef
  Compiler:                                                      
    cc='cc', optimize='-O2 -m486 -fno-strength-reduce', gccversion=egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)
    cppflags='-Dbool=char -DHAS_BOOL -I/usr/local/include'       
    ccflags ='-Dbool=char -DHAS_BOOL -I/usr/local/include'       
    stdchar='char', d_stdstdio=undef, usevfork=false             
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8               
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=12
    alignbytes=4, usemymalloc=n, prototype=define                
  Linker and Libraries:                                          
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'                        
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib                          
    libs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lposix -lcrypt                      
    libc=, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a            
  Dynamic Linking:                                               
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-rdynamic'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'     
                                                                 
Locally applied patches:                                         
                                                                 
                                                                 
---                                                              
@INC for perl 5.00503:                                           
    /home/johnsca/perllib                                        
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i386-linux                            
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503                                       
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux                    
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005                               
    .                                                            
                                                                 
---                                                              
Environment for perl 5.00503:                                    
    HOME=/home/johnsca                                           
    LANG=en_US                                                   
    LANGUAGE (unset)                                             
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)                                      
    LOGDIR (unset)                                               
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/johnsca/bin          
    PERL5LIB=/home/johnsca/perllib                               
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)                                         
    SHELL=/bin/bash                                              

• [ID 20010327.008] inconsistant return value from split by Cory Johns
• Re: [ID 20010327.008] inconsistant return value from split by Benjamin Sugars