-- Perl 5.8.8 documentation --
reverse
  • reverse LIST

    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.

        print reverse <>;		# line tac, last line first
        undef $/;			# for efficiency of <>
        print scalar reverse <>;	# character tac, last line tsrif

    Used without arguments in scalar context, reverse() reverses $_ .

    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.

        %by_name = reverse %by_address;	# Invert the hash