You're just tripping on your shoelace a little. It's not as bad as it seems.

$params = $CGI->Vars; puts a hash reference in $params. The next line of the CGI.pm POD gives the example of dereferencing an example 'key' contained in the hash. $params->{'address'} is only an example of how easy it is to read a param value after you've loaded it into an anonymous hash. The author could just as easily have said $params->{'example_key'}.

Your line that says %params = $CGI->Vars; is wrong, because you're attempting to assign a hash REFERENCE to an actual named hash, rather than to a scalar (scalars hold references). You could modify that line to this: 

%params = %{$CGI->Vars};

[download]
That dereferences the anonymous hash and assigns it to a real hash, but it doesn't really gain you anything except perhaps one level less of abstraction. And if you do that, you can no longer say $params->{'address'}. You would have to remove the dereferencing operator (->), as in "$params{'address'}".

You probably should have a look at perlreftut, perllol, and perlref to gain a stronger working knowledge of how references work. Then it should all come together for you.


Dave

In reply to Re: Getting hash of CGI variables by davido
in thread Getting hash of CGI variables by Lori713

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