NAME

Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitInterpolationOfLiterals - Always use single quotes for literal strings.

AFFILIATION

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

DESCRIPTION

Don't use double-quotes or "qq//" if your string doesn't require interpolation. This saves the interpreter a bit of work and it lets the reader know that you really did intend the string to be literal.

    print "foobar";     #not ok
    print 'foobar';     #ok
    print qq/foobar/;   #not ok
    print q/foobar/;    #ok

    print "$foobar";    #ok
    print "foobar\n";   #ok
    print qq/$foobar/;  #ok
    print qq/foobar\n/; #ok

    print qq{$foobar};  #preferred
    print qq{foobar\n}; #preferred

Use of double-quotes might be reasonable if the string contains single quote (') characters:

    print "it's me";    # ok, if configuration flag set

CONFIGURATION

The types of quoting styles to exempt from this policy can be configured via the "allow" option. This must be a whitespace-delimited combination of some or all of the following styles: "qq{}", "qq()", "qq[]", and "qq//".

This is useful because some folks have configured their editor to apply special syntax highlighting within certain styles of quotes. For example, you can tweak "vim" to use SQL highlighting for everything that appears within "qq{}" or "qq[]" quotes. But if those strings are literal, Perl::Critic will complain. To prevent this, put the following in your .perlcriticrc file:

    [ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitInterpolationOfLiterals]
    allow = qq{} qq[]

The flag "allow_if_string_contains_single_quote" permits double-quoted strings if the string contains a single quote (') character. It defaults to off; to turn it on put the following in your .perlcriticrc file:

    [ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitInterpolationOfLiterals]
    allow_if_string_contains_single_quote = 1

AUTHOR

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>

COPYRIGHT