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Reference Basics

You create and assign a normal scalar variable by using an assignment operator, as follows:

$a="Stones";   # A normal scalar

After this snippet, a scalar variable called $a is created, and it contains the string "Stones". So far, nothing unusual. Now somewhere in the computer is a place labeled $a that contains that string, as illustrated here:

If you were to assign the scalar $b to $a—like $a=$b;—you would wind up with two copies of the data, with two different names, as shown here:

Having two copies might be okay if you ...