Citation :
References
1. Scalar references:
$ra = \$a; # reference to scalar
$$ra = 2; # dereference scalar-ref
$ra = \1.6; # reference to constant scalar
2. Array references:
$rl = \@l; # reference to existing
$rl = [1,2,3]; # reference to anon. scalar
push (@$rl, "a" ); # Dereference
print $rl->[3] # 4th element of array pointed to by $rl
3. Hash references:
$rh = \%h; # reference to hash
$rh = {"laurel" => "hardy", "romeo" => "juliet"}; # ref to anon-hash
print keys (%$rh); # Dereference
$x = $rh->{"laurel"}; # Arrow notation to extract single element
@slice = @$rh{"laurel","romeo"}; # Hash slice
4. Code references:
$rs = \&foo; # reference to existing subroutine foo
$rs = sub {print "foo"}; # reference to anonymous subroutine
# (remember the semicolon at the end)
&$rs(); # dereference: call the subroutine
5. Generalized dereferences. Any code inside a block yielding a reference can be dereferenced:
@a = @{foo()}; # dereference the array reference
# returned by foo()
6. References gotchas. All the examples below are wrong. Always use -w in developing and testing.
@foo = [1,3,4]; # Assigning an array-ref to an array
# Use parentheses instead.
%foo = {"foo" => "bar"}; # Assigning a hash-ref to a hash.
# Use parentheses instead.
$foo = \($a, @b); # Identical to $foo = (\$a, \@b)
# Assiging an enumerated list to a
# scalar yields the last element (so,
# $foo gets \@b). Use [ ] if you need
# an array reference
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