tlk00 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Is there anything wrong with passing a hash reference like this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

$fruit{'Apple'} = "Red";
$fruit{'Orange'} = "Orange";
$fruit{'Grape'} = "Purple";
$fruit{'Lemon'} = "Yellow";
$fruit{'Lime'} = "Green";

$myHashref=\%fruit;
print "Hash reference to send = $myHashref\n";
print "Print local hash\n\n";
foreach $key (sort keys %fruit) {
     print $key, '=', $fruit{$key}, "\n";
}
print "\nLeaving Main\n\n";
&mysubrtn($myHashref);



sub mysubrtn() {
  local *myref = shift ;
  print "In my Subrtn\n";
  print "Print hash via reference\n\n";
  foreach $key (sort keys %myref )  {
     print $key, '=', $myref{$key}, "\n";
  }
}

[download]
I believe this is called the typeglob approach. The original example code is below.
This doesn't seem to be as straight forward to me. Is this just my lack of understanding? Opinions? 
[root@dubya perl]# cat fruit2.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl

$fruit{'Apple'} = "Red";
$fruit{'Orange'} = "Orange";
$fruit{'Grape'} = "Purple";
$fruit{'Lemon'} = "Yellow";
$fruit{'Lime'} = "Green";

$myHashref=\%fruit;
print "Hash reference to send = $myHashref\n";
print "Print local hash\n\n";
foreach $key (sort keys %fruit) {
     print $key, '=', $fruit{$key}, "\n";
}
print "\nLeaving Main\n\n";
&mysubrtn($myHashref);



sub mysubrtn() {
  $myref = shift ;
  print "In my Subrtn\n";
  print "Print hash via reference\n\n";
  foreach $key (sort keys %$myref )  {
     print $key, '=', ${ $myref }{$key}, "\n";
  }
}

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Passing hash reference to a subroutine
by hbm (Hermit) on Feb 19, 2009 at 17:03 UTC

    perldata says your typeglob method "used to be the preferred way to pass arrays and hashes by reference into a function, but now that we have real references, this is seldom needed." And, "Much safer is to use a reference."

    And your typeglob method doesn't play nicely with strict and warnings, while the reference method does.

    And for opinion, I think the reference method is absolutely clear; while the * introduces a bit of mystery.

[reply]
      First of all, thank you for taking the time to respond. What looked 'funny' to me was the $ { $myref } {$key}. I think I need to take some time to review the 'Programming Perl' book. Specifically Chapter 2 on subroutines and Chapter 4 on References and Nested Data Structures.
      Regards, Terry Kummell
[reply]

        You could dereference that without the braces: $$myref{$key}.

        Also, map is good for your printing: 

           print map { "$_=$$myref{$_}\n" } sort keys %$myref;

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Passing hash reference to a subroutine
by jethro (Monsignor) on Feb 19, 2009 at 17:02 UTC

    Consider this

    #!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;

$fruit{'Apple'} = "Red";

$myHashref=\%fruit;
&mysubrtn($myHashref);

sub mysubrtn() {
  local *myref = shift ;
  test();
}

sub test {
    print $myref{'Apple'},"\n";
}

    [download]

    This will print "red", because you created a globally visible variable. No problem for small scripts, but in bigger programs that approach is as sensible as using globally defined variables.

    Also maintainability might suffer because you are hiding the fact that a variable is a reference. Again no problem for small scripts, not advisable in bigger projects

[reply]
[d/l]

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