The short answer is that @array{1,2,3} is a hash slice, and therefore an array. You can tell it's a hash slice because the indexes are inside {curlies}. You can tell it's an array because it starts with an @.

It's rather like the whole beginner array-vs-array-item confusion that so many people encounter, at least briefly: if @x is my array, surely item 3 in @x should be @x[3] ?

But of course it's not, it's $x[3] because the item itself is a scalar.

In this case, even though we're retrieving from (or in your case assigning to) a hash, we're interacting with it in a list-centric way rather than a one-thing-at-a-time way.

So @x{...} refers to %x. It has nothing to do with @x at al, and also nothing to do with typeglobs.

The trick is to understand that the kind of brackets around the index ({} vs []) determine whether it's an array or hash that you're dealing with, not the symbol at the front, which only determines how many things you're dealing with in one operation.

In reply to Re: Hash initialization works, but why? by thparkth
in thread Hash initialization works, but why? by throop

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