πŸ“˜ Named arguments in Perl 6 subs

πŸ“˜ Named arguments in Raku subs

N. B. Perl 6 has been renamed to Raku. Click to read more.


Apart from the positional parameters (those that have to go in the same order both in the sub definition and in the sub call), Perl 6 allows named variables, somewhat similar to how you pass a hash to a Perl 5 subroutine. To declare a named parameter, a colon is used:

sub power(:$base, :$exponent) {
Β Β Β  return $base ** $exponent;
}

Now, the name of the variable is the name of the parameter, and the order is not important anymore.

say power(:base(2), :exponent(3)); # 8
say power(:exponent(3), :base(2)); # 8

It is also possible to have different names for the named arguments and those variables, which will be used inside the sub. To give a different name, put it after a colon:

sub power(:val($base), :pow($exponent)) {
Β Β Β  return $base ** $exponent;
}

Now the sub expects new names of the arguments.

say power(:val(5), :pow(2)); # 25
say power(:pow(2), :val(5)); # 25

Alternatively, you can use the fatarrow syntax to pass named parameters as it is done in the following example:

say power(val => 5, pow => 2); # 25

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