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Reference Types

There are six types of references. A reference can point to a scalar, an array, a hash, a glob, a function, or another reference. Table 8.1 shows how the different types are valued with the assignment operator and how to dereference them using curly braces.

The Six Types of References are:

Reference Assignment How to Dereference
$refScalar = \$scalar; ${$refScalar} is a scalar value.
$refArray = \@array; @{$refArray} is an array value.
$refHash = \%hash; %{$refHash} is a hash value.
$refglob = \*file; Glob references are beyond the scope of this course
$refFunction = \&function; &{$refFunction} is a function location.
$refRef = \$refScalar; ${${$refScalar} is a scalar value.

Essentially, all you need to do in order to create a reference is to add the backslash to the front of a value or variable.



dave@cs.cf.ac.uk