You're doing something right, using strict to catch unintended global variables. You can say:

use vars qw( @a @b );
# or else for recent perl
# our (@a, @b);

[download]

Beware *a and *b, you're treading near $a and $b, which are sacred to sort. Expect bizarre bugs in code that uses those names. Your example function is probably ok since it doesnt call sort and localizes the typeglob, but imagine what could happen if some function that sorts were called, and a user fed the function a pair of refs to scalars. It would compile, appear to work, and might even return correct values - for most inputs.

After Compline,
Zaxo

In reply to Re: Confused about typeglobs and references by Zaxo
in thread Confused about typeglobs and references by Argel

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.