Course of Raku / Essentials / Scalar variables / Exercises / Swap values

Solution: Swap values

In this program, we are using the elements of Raku syntax from the section about scalar variables.

Code

my ($a, $b) = 10, 20;
($a, $b) = $b, $a;
say "$a, $b";

🦋 You can find the source code in the file swap.raku.

Output

Run the program and confirm it prints the values in different order.

$ raku exercises/scalar-variables/swap.raku
20, 10

Comments

All the steps of this program (creating a variable and assigning the values, swapping them, and printing) use both variables in the same construction. The most interesting here is the way the variables exchange their values:

($a, $b) = $b, $a;

Notice that you need parentheses on the left-hand side, but you can also add them on the right-hand side:

($a, $b) = ($b, $a);

What happens if you omit parentheses?

$a, $b = $b, $a;

In this case, you get a warning that $a on the right-hand side is not used:

$ raku exercises/scalar-variables/swap.raku
WARNINGS for /Users/ash/raku-course/exercises/scalar-variables/swap.raku:
Useless use of $a in sink context (lines 2, 2)
10, 20

The above line is actually equivalent to a useless assignment $b = $b. You can easily see it if you modify the values on the right side, for example:

$a, $b = 2 * $b, 3 * $a;

This program prints even more warnings, but you can also see that only $b changed its value:

$ raku exercises/scalar-variables/swap.raku
WARNINGS for /Users/ash/raku-course/exercises/scalar-variables/swap.raku:
Useless use of "*" in expression "3 * $a" in sink context (line 2)
Useless use of $a in sink context (line 2)
10, 40

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