Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals)

${'a'} is a symbolic reference. The latter is forbidden under strict, and that's a good thing, as it can easily cause all kinds of hard-to-debug chaos

Perhaps a silly question but I don't know the answer so I shall ask it anyway...
Is there ever a case to use a symbolic reference in Perl? The documentation doesn't give any hint as to why one would be needed other than to describe them as powerful.

Comment on Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals)

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Re: Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals) by haukex (Archbishop) on Apr 28, 2021 at 21:24 UTC
Is there ever a case to use a symbolic reference in Perl? Two places that come to mind where I regularly write `no strict 'refs';` is dynamic method/function generation (example 1, example 2) and implementations of `import` (example 1, example 2, at the bottom of each node). Other than those legitimate uses, there's interaction with legacy code (example 1, example 2). Note how in each of those examples the scope of the `no strict` is limited to be as small as possible. Update: Added more links to examples.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals) by choroba (Cardinal) on Apr 28, 2021 at 21:22 UTC
Historically, they were probably useful, but I came to Perl when 5.6 was already there, so I don't remember them. Nowadays, strict forbids them, so the answer is "No". On the contrary, check Can you use string as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use? on how confusing they can be. `map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]\|\|0,1}[\\|\|{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^ARGV,3]`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals) by LanX (Saint) on Apr 29, 2021 at 02:35 UTC
> Nowadays, strict forbids them, so the answer is "No" Well except for all cases of `no strict 'refs';` where the answer is "Yes". ;) Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Use case for symbolic references (was: Re^2: Referencing the locals) by LanX (Saint) on Apr 29, 2021 at 02:39 UTC
Most cases are for metaprogramming and debugging. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]