What does ($a,$b,$c) = @array mean in Perl?

Question

I'd google it if I could but honestly I don't know what to search for (an inherent problem with symbol-heavy languages)!

($aSvnRemote, $aSvnLocal, $aSvnRef, $aSvnOptions) = @{$aSvnPair};

My guess is that $aSvnPair is an array of 4 values (in which case it's a very poorly named variable!) and this is just splitting it into specific variable identities...?

Answer 1

It's nothing more than a list assignment. The first value of the RHS is assigned to the first var on the LHS, and so on. That means

($aSvnRemote, $aSvnLocal, $aSvnRef, $aSvnOptions) = @{$aSvnPair};

is the same as

$aSvnRemote  = $aSvnPair->[0];
$aSvnLocal   = $aSvnPair->[1];
$aSvnRef     = $aSvnPair->[2];
$aSvnOptions = $aSvnPair->[3];