Update: As mentioned below, I should have mentioned some of the dangers in using symbolic references. I assumed that the example above was a simple case of what the author needed to do (for whatever reason), which is why I didn't suggest alternatives, such as arrays of arrays. They should put a warning on cold medication that suggests people should not use PerlMonks when taking this medication! :-)

If you want to access a variable when by name, you want to use symbolic dereferencing, which is done like any other type of dereferencing:

foreach (@masterarrray) {
   my @array = @$_;
   print int @array; # prints the length of the array
   print "@array"; # prints the contents
   # ... etc ...
}

[download]

Likewise, you can access the array without a temp variable like this:

foreach (@masterarrray) {
   print int @$_; # prints the length of the array
   print "@$_"; # prints the contents
   print $$_[0]; # prints the 0th element
   # ... etc ...
}

[download]

Ted Young

($$<<$$=>$$<=>$$<=$$>>$$) always returns 1. :-)

In reply to Re: array of arrays - context problem by TedYoung
in thread array of arrays - context problem by Anonymous Monk

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