what is \ in perl

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

What is the correct name for the \agent thing

my $stream =HTML::TokeParser->new( \agent->{content}   );
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how is it related to the

 print Dumper \@link;
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I believe it lets you pass a reference to a function or an object as an argument. Is this right?

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Re: what is \ in perl by davido (Cardinal) on Jun 21, 2006 at 21:46 UTC
It's called the backslash operator (see perlref). It is used to take a reference to a variable, subroutine, or value. It doesn't create a new variable, simply a reference to an existing variable, sub, or value. perlreftut is a good starting point for references. Dave	[reply]
Re: what is \ in perl by EvanK (Chaplain) on Jun 21, 2006 at 21:52 UTC
as with everything in perl, the backslash '\' has several different uses. you're correct that when you precede an unquoted variable with a backslash, you get a reference to it. `# this will print a memory address like SCALAR(0x1e8feac) print \$test;` [download] __________ Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. - Terry Pratchett	[reply] [d/l]
Re: what is \ in perl by HuckinFappy (Pilgrim) on Jun 22, 2006 at 03:38 UTC
And it does things which you may not expect. Well, I didn't expect them, but when I think about it, things make sense: `DB<15> $bar = \do { my $n = @INC ; "$n entries in \@INC" } DB<16> print $$bar 6 entries in @INC` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: what is \ in perl by hawtin (Prior) on Jun 22, 2006 at 08:01 UTC
I am not sure what the meaning of the question is, but the answer is probably here	[reply]