Using quote-like-operators or quotes in the perl's printf

Question

Reading perl sources I saw many times the next construction: ``` printf qq[%s
], getsomestring( $_ ); ``` But usually it is written as ``` printf "%s
", getsomestring( $_ ); ``` The question: - is here any "good practice" what is the correct way, and if yes - when is recommended to use the longer `qq[...]` vs the `"..."` - or it is only pure TIMTOWTDI? The perlop doesn't mention anything about this.

Accepted Answer

You can use `qq()` as an alternative double quote method, such as when you have double quotes in the string. For example:

```
""foo bar""
```

Looks better when written

```
qq("foo bar")
```

When in the windows cmd shell, which uses double quotes, I often use `qq()` when I need interpolation. For example:

```
perl -lwe "print qq($foo
)"
```

The `qq()` operator -- like many other perl operators such as `s///`, `qx()` -- is also handy as you demonstrate because it can use just about any character as its delimiter:

```
qq[this works]
qq|as does this|
qq#or this#
```

This is handy for when you have many different delimiters in the string. For example:

```
qq!This is (not) "hard" to quote!
```

As for best practice, I would say use whatever is more readable.

Using quote-like-operators or quotes in the perl's printf

Solution

Problem