Reference to an array

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
•Re: Reference to an array by merlyn (Sage) on Jun 11, 2002 at 14:35 UTC
`my @body = @{$item->body};` [download] -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Reference to an array by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Jun 11, 2002 at 14:54 UTC
The syntax rule in Perl is that anywhere where you write `@arrayname` you may replace `arrayname` with a block whose result is a reference to an array. So, since `$item -> body` is an expression returning an array, we can write `@{$item -> body}`. And that's the array you want. Abigail	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Reference to an array by little (Curate) on Jun 11, 2002 at 14:41 UTC
See perlman:perlref. `# if $body is a ref to an array @deRefArray = @{$body};` [download] Have a nice day All decision is left to your taste	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Reference to an array by Jenda (Abbot) on Jun 11, 2002 at 14:56 UTC
There are basicaly two ways you can solve it. First, you can dereference the array as soon as you get it from ->body() ... but in that case you are forcing Perl to create a copy of the array for you. Or Second, you may keep the reference and use it: `#$body is the reference to the array of lines my $body=$item->body; print @$body; #or foreach my $line (@$body){ print $line; }` [download] If you wanted to access for example the 5th line of the body you could use : `print "5th line=$body->[4]\n";` [download] Jenda@Krynicky.cz	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Reference to an array by vkroll (Novice) on Jun 11, 2002 at 17:27 UTC
If it's really a ref to an array you have to dereference it. Try: `my $body = $item->body; # ^ It's important foreach my $line(@$body) { print $line; } ## or for debugging use Data::Dumper; print STDERR Dumper $body;` [download] HTH Volker	[reply] [d/l]