Perl Longest Common Prefix

lcp.pl

# returns longest common prefix of a list of strings
sub lcp
{
    my $match = shift;
    substr($match, (($match ^ $_) =~ /^\0*/, $+[0])) = '' for @_;
    $match;
}

Two things:

1. WOW!!! :)
2. What is the license for this code?

Thanks!

My own analysis, for anyone who is curious ---

• ($match ^ $_) =~ /^\0*/ matches the run of prefix characters in common between $match and $_ (string XOR produces null == \0 where characters match).
• $+[0] is the offset of the end of that run.
• substr() = '' removes the part of $match starting at the leftmost char position that differs between $match and $_.
• for @_ loops over all strings except the first (which was handled by the initial shift), removing the mismatched suffix each time.

Is there a version to return the longest common suffix of a list of strings?