Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::ProhibitUselessTopic(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation NAME Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::ProhibitUselessTopic - Don't use $_ to match against regexes. AFFILIATION This Policy is part of the Perl::Critic distribution. DESCRIPTION It is not necessary to specify the topic variable $_ when matching against a regular expression. Match or substitution operations are performed against variables, such as: $x =~ /foo/; $x =~ s/foo/bar/; $x =~ tr/a-mn-z/n-za-m/; If a variable is not specified, the match is against $_. # These are identical. /foo/; $_ =~ /foo/; # These are identical. s/foo/bar/; $_ =~ s/foo/bar/; # These are identical. tr/a-mn-z/n-za-m/; $_ =~ tr/a-mn-z/n-za-m/; This applies to negative matching as well. # These are identical if ( $_ !~ /DEBUG/ ) { ... if ( !/DEBUG ) { ... Including the "$_ =~" or "$_ !~" is unnecessary, adds complexity, and is not idiomatic Perl. CONFIGURATION This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options. AUTHOR Andy Lester COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2013 Andy Lester This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0. perl v5.38.0 2023-07-26 Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::ProhibitUselessTopic(3pm)