That would be the time to show how to define a subroutine that can get arbitrary number of values, but that requires introducing two concepts at a time. So I'll have to find a better set of examples.
Anyway, if we would like to implement a sum() subroutine that can get any number of values we need to define it like this:
examples/subroutines/slurpy_argument.p6#!/usr/bin/env perl6
use v6;
sub sum(*@values) {
my $sum = 0;
for @values -> $v {
$sum += $v
}
return $sum;
}
say sum(2, 3); # 5
my @a = (2, 3, 4);
my $z = 5;
say sum(@a, $z); # 14
That is, we have to say that the expected parameter is a slurpy array. The * means it is slurpy, the @ still means it is an array. It will then accept any value as parameter and put them in the @values array.
So I can call it either with literal scalars or even with a list of arrays and scalars mixed