Re: Function that accepts both hashes/arrays and hashrefs/arreyrefs

As mentioned by others the risk of sending an array or a hash to a function is risky with lots of unexpected things possible see: perlsub. However if you will limit yourself to only array refs or hash refs then the real question is how to disinguish which one was sent and what to do with it. I like;

my $Input = $ArrayRef || $HashRef;
set_value( $Input );

sub set_value {

    #recieve the passed variable(s)
    #my $self = shift;#For OO subs
    my $Arg = shift;

    if ( ref $Arg eq 'HASH' ) {
        ### Handle a hash $Arg->{key}
    } elsif ( ref $Arg eq 'ARRAY' ) {
        ### Handle an array $Arg->[$index]
    } else {
        ### Must not be an array ref or hash ref
    }

}
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Updated code block
Cleaner syntax, Thank you Porculus

Comment on Re: Function that accepts both hashes/arrays and hashrefs/arreyrefs Download Code

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Re^2: Function that accepts both hashes/arrays and hashrefs/arreyrefs by Porculus (Hermit) on Jun 19, 2009 at 18:38 UTC
That's not a great way to do it; your code will, for example, think it's got an array reference if someone passes the string `"This is NOT an array(really!)"` as an argument. A better approach is to use the `ref` function.	[reply] [d/l] [select]