Given/When

The given/when construct is borrowed from Perl 6 and it's somewhat equivalent with switch/case from other languages.

given (42) {
  case (_ < 0) {
       say "Negative value!"
  }
  when (0) {
       say "Null value!"
  }
  when (1) {
       say "Value is: 1"
  }
  default {
       say "Value is greater than 1!"
  }
}
  • case is used to test an expression for trueness

  • when is used to test a value using the rules of the smartmarch operator

The rules of the smartmarch operator are pretty simple:

  • Obj ~~ Obj will always check for equality when both objects have the same type.

  • Obj ~~ Array will return true if Obj exists inside the array.

  • Obj ~~ Hash will return true when Obj is a key inside the hash.

  • Obj ~~ Regex will try to match the Obj against the regex and returns true on a successful match.

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