You are viewing the version of this documentation from Perl blead. This is the main development branch of Perl. (git commit d15b221202e3baff64ac19cfcb0adbf81179ef0d)
wantarray

Returns true if the context of the currently executing subroutine or eval is looking for a list value. Returns false if the context is looking for a scalar. Returns the undefined value if the context is looking for no value (void context).

return unless defined wantarray; # don't bother doing more
my @a = complex_calculation();
return wantarray ? @a : "@a";

wantarray's result is unspecified in the top level of a file, in a BEGIN, UNITCHECK, CHECK, INIT or END block, or in a DESTROY method.

This function should have been named wantlist() instead.