I for one, tend to use scalars and refs because that makes using the variables more consistent (arrows for everybody!). It makes for less effort to pass around the refs to helper functions. I'll still use a direct array variable for something very local and/or temporary, but in general it'll be refs.

These days, I often go all the way to a $universal hashref, which makes it almost trivial to save and restore the program state.

PS:
Such a $universal hashref technique is not recommended for anyone who has issues with spelling key names consistently and accurately.

In reply to Re^2: Faster indexing an array by SuicideJunkie
in thread Faster indexing an array by wollmers

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