my $var = join('|',@array) not behaving

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

This isn't doing as I expect. Am I missing something simple? here

my @array=[1,"word",2];
my $print_string = join ('|', @array);
print "$print_string \n";
print Dumper(@array);
print Dumper($print_string);
[download]

my output is :

$VAR1 = [
          1,
          'word',
          2
        ];
$VAR1 = 'ARRAY(0x8153c28)';
[download]

I would expect that $print_string = "1 | word | 2"

Stuffy
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it, unless I'm wrong in which case I will probably change it ;~)
may be reproduced under the SDL

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Re: my $var = join('\|',@array) not behaving by ikegami (Patriarch) on May 09, 2008 at 02:18 UTC
Always pass a scalar to Dumper. If you had done `print Dumper(\@array);`, it would have been easier to notice the array contains only one element (a reference to an array containing three elements). The problem is that `my @array=[1,"word",2];` should be `my @array=(1,"word",2);` The `[ ]` operator creates an array and returns a reference to that array. Not what you want at all. You just wanted to build a list.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: my $var = join('\|',@array) not behaving by grep (Monsignor) on May 09, 2008 at 02:24 UTC
Square brackets `[]` are for creating a reference to an anonymous array. Parens `()` construct a list which you can assign to an array. You can read more at perldata and perlref Try This: `my @array = ( 1, "word", 2 ); my $print_string = join ('\|', @array); print "$print_string\n";` [download] grep `One dead unjugged rabbit fish later...`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: my $var = join('\|',@array) not behaving by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 09, 2008 at 06:50 UTC
Parens () construct a list which you can assign to an array. Nit: parens group a list. The list is already there, but the precedence of `=` and `,` are such that without parentheses, only the first element of the list gets assigned.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: my $var = join('\|',@array) not behaving by ikegami (Patriarch) on May 09, 2008 at 07:16 UTC
such that without parentheses, only the first element of the list gets assigned. Since we're being picky about the language, the list being assigned only has one element, so it's odd to refer to its first element. The assignment is the first element of the larger list.	[reply]
Re: my $var = join('\|',@array) not behaving by ww (Archbishop) on May 09, 2008 at 02:39 UTC
Update What follows is mostly true (save the striken phrase), but see the answers above. I misread the square brackets as parens (probably because that'swhat I expected... which goes to show, if nothing else, that seeing what one expects rather than what exists is a source of many errors. `join` expects a list. From `perldoc -f join`: join EXPR,LIST Joins the separate strings of LIST into a single string with fields separated by the value of EXPR, and returns that new string. Example: `$rec = join(’:’, login,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$gcos,$home,$shell);` Your `@array` is not a list. Rather, in this case ~~(ie, in the way you've written the assignment to `$print_string`,~~ the list has a single-element -- a reference to `@array`. See References quick reference.	[reply] [d/l] [select]