formal arguments

The generic names by which a "subroutine" knows its arguments. In many languages, formal arguments are always given individual names, but in Perl, the formal arguments are just the elements of an array. The formal arguments to a Perl program are $ARGV[0], $ARGV[1], and so on. Similarly, the formal arguments to a Perl subroutine are ExpertGlossary::Source::PerlPerlglossary=HASH(0x525e7d8), $_[1], and so on. You may give the arguments individual names by assigning the values to a my list. See also "actual arguments".