In list context, returns a list value consisting of the elements of LIST in the opposite order. In scalar context, concatenates the elements of LIST and returns a string value with all characters in the opposite order.
Used without arguments in scalar context, reverse reverses $_ .
Note that reversing an array to itself (as in @a = reverse @a
) will
preserve non-existent elements whenever possible; i.e., for non-magical
arrays or for tied arrays with EXISTS
and DELETE
methods.
This operator is also handy for inverting a hash, although there are some caveats. If a value is duplicated in the original hash, only one of those can be represented as a key in the inverted hash. Also, this has to unwind one hash and build a whole new one, which may take some time on a large hash, such as from a DBM file.