How do I check if a Perl scalar variable has been initialized?

Question

Is the following the best way to check if a scalar variable is initialized in Perl, using defined?

my $var;

if (cond) {
    $var = \"string1\";         


        

Answer 1

If you don't care whether or not it's empty, it is. Otherwise you can check

if ( length( $str || '' )) {}