Why is $$var bad?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Using cgi-lib.pl to get HTML form field/value pairs into %array, it's sometimes useful to do something like this: foreach $key (keys(%array)){ $$key = $array{$key}; } In this way, you can call form data by $Email rather than, say, $array{'Email'}. However, I've seen hints that $$var is a bad idea and/or deprecated. Is there a better way to do the same thing?

Comment on Why is $$var bad?

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Re: Why is $$var bad? by btrott (Parson) on Feb 19, 2000 at 01:01 UTC
Symbolic references (what you're talking about) are indeed a very bad idea. A better way to do it is just to use a hash. Also, you should investigate using CGI.pm instead of cgi-lib.pl. It's better and it's well-supported.	[reply]
Re: Why is $$var bad? by Anonymous Monk on Feb 19, 2000 at 05:32 UTC
This article discusses the answer to this exact question. It is indeed a very bad idea. You think you want to be able to write `$Email` instead of `$form{Email}`, but there's a tradeoff there. The cited article discusses that tradeoff, and points out that it's a really bad move. On the bright side, you get to save a few characters typing. On the dark side.... Well, it's too horrible to go into.	[reply]