In perl, array get and set, hash get and set are value-based. When you set/get a scalar from an array/hash, its value is copied: 
my @array;
my $i = "abcd";
$array[0] = $i;

# $array[0] won't change
$i = "efgh";

my %hash;
my $i2 = 1234;
$hash{'key'} = $i2;

# $hash{'key'} won't change
$i2 = 5678;

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However, in the perl's C interface, calls like av_store, av_fetch, hv_store, hv_fetch, av_push, av_pop, the scalar itself is really being stored to the container, or fetched from the container, instead of its copy. So, if I'm going to make a general-purpose C++ wrapper for perl, should I imitate the behavior of perl, or just follow the behavior of perlapi?

In reply to The behavior of array and hash OPs by llancet

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