Re: Sparse arrays?

I point out immediatly that I have NFI about these kind of internals, but I certainly wonder or boggle at the refcount. Now when I execute this code on linux p5.6.1, I get that same value for refcount , 2147483634.

So just for the hell of it, did the same on IRIX , and all the 'autovivified' but empty elements have 2147483566 as their refcount.

This will probably never effect how I code perl in the slightest, but now I just HAVE to know - WTF? , what is this magic number all about? How is it different accross architectures ? (ok that's a bit of a dud question, since most numbers get handled differently) .. but eh!?

submersible_toaster floats off to try and make 2 billion odd references to $i='JAPH';

Update: ++ everyone , nice explanation MarkM.

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Re: Re: Sparse arrays? by chromatic (Archbishop) on Dec 18, 2002 at 08:02 UTC
Bad Things would happen if that particular scalar were to be garbage collected.	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Sparse arrays? by submersible_toaster (Chaplain) on Dec 18, 2002 at 09:48 UTC
sadly I will never find out : ( .. . . . unless maybe if I take the proxy offline xmas day..	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Sparse arrays? by diotalevi (Canon) on Dec 18, 2002 at 17:48 UTC
Take a look at B. There's a function that will let you alter an object's ref count directly. ;-) Fun Fun Fun in the Fluffy Chair	[reply]
Re: Re: Sparse arrays? by sauoq (Abbot) on Dec 18, 2002 at 17:41 UTC
Notice that the recount values you are examining only occur when the SV is NULL. The refcount doesn't matter when the SV is NULL and probably just hasn't been initialized. Depending on the platform and compiler, the refcount might be anything but it's a moot point because it isn't used. -sauoq "My two cents aren't worth a dime.";	[reply]
Re: Re: Sparse arrays? by janx (Monk) on Dec 18, 2002 at 18:09 UTC
Actually the refcount for NULL is set to be that high. You would be very disappointed if all your undef's would be garbage collected :-0 That number is 2^32 - minus the times that thing (NULL) has been "freed" (decreased refcount that is...) regards, janx	[reply]