Yeah, you can explain this behavior. But it is, frankly, stupid. \\$x is, indeed, a reference to a scalar and so ref should return "SCALAR". Having a special case for "reference to a scalar that happens to currently be holding a reference" is silly. It just leads to code having to check for both "SCALAR" and "REF", adding complexity. It makes about as much sense as having ref(\\\$x) return "REFREF" or ref(\\@x) return "ARRAYREF" or ref([]) return "EMPTYARRAY".

- tye        

In reply to Re: Why do I (sometimes) get a REF ref and not a SCALAR ref? (silly) by tye
in thread Why do I (sometimes) get a REF ref and not a SCALAR ref? by Anonymous Monk

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