All,
In this node, I provided a solution to loop over an array by an arbitrary number of elements each iteration. The problem is that it produces copies and not aliases like you would get with a for loop. I was able to modify the code to use references, but I am not very happy with it. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = 0 .. 30;
my $next = by_groups_of( 3, @array );

while ( my @group = $next->() ) {
    ${ $group[1] } = 'foo';            # This is FUGLY
}
print "$_\n" for @array;

sub by_groups_of {
    my $by = shift;
    return sub { () } if ! $by || $by =~ /\D/ || ! @_;
    my $list = \@_;

    my $pos = 0;
    my $done;

    return sub {
        return () if $done;
        my $start = $pos;
        my $stop = $pos + $by - 1 > $#$list ? $#$list : $pos + $by - 1
+;
        $pos += $by - 1;
        $done = 1 if $stop == $#$list;
        return map { \$_ } @$list[ $start .. $stop ];
    }
}

[download]
Is there a way to make this more DWYMish without resorting to scary hacks? Not that scary hacks aren't welcome, but I have production code that I wouldn't mind using it in.

Cheers - L~R

Since I didn't want to modify the original code here, see this node, for a copy of the latest revision

In reply to How to make references more like aliases? by Limbic~Region

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