No, the array is copied before the function returns. You can observe that:

You missed the point. It does not make any difference when the array is copied, before or after the return. The point was, when the function returns, the caller "can know" that some array was returned. So it makes difference what you return from the function, array or list or scalar.

If you just wanted to say, that the array seen by the caller is not the same object as the array that was given to "return", then you are absolutely correct. But this is true for any returned object. Even references to arrays are copied, they are not the same references as the returned variables. Of course they reference the same array, but they are not the same references. So arrays are not an exception to this rule. It is general feature of the language.

By the way, your code examples don't prove that the copying happens before the return. They just prove, that the "for" loop works with copies of values. Nothing else. When those copies were made stays unclear :)

In reply to Re^4: Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving (return array) by andal
in thread Confused as to why the "casting context" is mis-behaving by kiz

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.