Programming PERL in the .NET Environment

Anonymous References

The references that we have seen thus far have been to variables that have already had storage allocated for them.

@data = (10,20,30,40);       # allocate the array
$rdata = \@data;             # create a reference to it
%states = (                  # allocate a hash
            MD => Annapolis,
            CA => Sacramento,
            NY => "New York City"
          );
$rhash = \%states;           # create a reference to it

In some cases you will want to take another approach; that is, you will want to create a reference to anonymous storage.

Anonymous Arrays

The syntax for an anonymous array uses the [ ] operator. When Perl sees this operator in the following context, the address of the data within the [ ] is created. In the code below, $refa is simply a reference to an array. It can be used as before. The ...