Generate list with conditional items

Question

Is it possible to create an array with conditional items?

my @a = (1, ($condition) ? 2 : \"no-op\", 3);

Such that \"no-op\" is fu

Answer 1

You can use empty list () to skip second element,

my @a = (1, ($condition ? 2 : ()), 3);

Answer 2

Generally speaking, you can get some readability gains using

my @a;
push @a, 1;
push @a, 2 if $condition;
push @a, 3;

In context, that would be

my @rules;
push @rules, $rule->new->name('*.cfg')->prune->discard;
push @rules, $rule->directory->name("_private.d")->prune->discard if $condition;
push @rules, $rule->new->name('*.t')->prune->discard;
push @rules, $rule->new->name('*.bak')->prune->discard;
push @rules, $rule->new->name('.*.bak')->prune->discard;
push @rules, $rule->new->name('.#*')->prune->discard;

my $rule = File::Find::Rule->new()->or(@rules);
my @files = $rule->in(".");