my @array = ();
[download]

$array[1] = { val => "The initial value for 1", one => 'undef' };
$array[0] = { val => "The initial value for 0", one => \$array[1]{val}
+ };
$array[2] = { val => "The initial value for 2", one => \$array[1]{val}
+ };
$array[3] = { val => "The initial value for 3", one => \$array[1]{val}
+ };
[download]

for my $i (0 .. 3) {
    print "# $array[$i]{one}\n";
    if (ref $array[$i]{one} eq 'SCALAR') {
        print "#\t${$array[$i]{one}}\n";
    }
}
[download]

I get

# SCALAR(0x8114938)
#     The initial value for 1
# undef
# SCALAR(0x8114938)
#     The initial value for 1
# SCALAR(0x8114938)
#     The initial value for 1
[download]

So all the references have the same address and value. Great.
But no one would initialize an array like this, so I do it in a loop

for my $i (0 .. 3) {
    $array[$i] = { val => rand(time)%3, one => \$array[1]{val} };
}
[download]

D'oh! Now things seem to be broken. The same section of code for printing

print "\n";
for my $i (0 .. 3) {
    print "# $array[$i]{one}\n";
    if (ref $array[$i]{one} eq 'SCALAR') {
        print "# \t${$array[$i]{one}}\n";
    }
}
[download]

gives me the irritating output of

# SCALAR(0x8114938)
#     The initial value for 1
# SCALAR(0x8114938)
#     The initial value for 1
# SCALAR(0x81adcd8)
#     0
# SCALAR(0x81adcd8)
#     0
[download]

Notice that the references have changed after reseting the value for @array[ 1 ]. So now $array[ 0 ]{one} points to the old value and the last 2 elements of the array point to the new value. The whole idea here was to have a reference to the value of $array[ 1 ]{val} so that other nodes would always have the current value, but that's broken.

What is happening here?

I suspect that this has to do with scoping inside the loop's block and that I'm creating something like a closure. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

I don't have any great project hanging on this, in fact I have a working version thanks to merlyn's node on using push for this, but it's bugging me that I don't understand why this doesn't work.

Thanks for your time,
Peter C.,

"It's not the fact that I have the monkeys that gives me the power, it's that I'll turn the monkeys loose that gives me the power."
~Kids in the Hall