[1] is a reference. A reference in a numeric context gives you a memory address. Memory addresses are usually big. Storing an element out of range in an array will make Perl grow the array so it fits - creating undefined values to fill up the array. Storing an element using a big index will make Perl create a huge array, with all the elements taking two handfuls of bytes.

I'd say you're lucky it takes only 50Mb on your system. It dies on one system I tried it on, and it used 420 Mb on another.

Abigail

In reply to Re: Out Of Memory error at 950MB with 14GB free RAM by Abigail-II
in thread Out Of Memory error at 950MB with 14GB free RAM by aburker

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