This is what I've been looking at. The example doesn't use references, though example 6 does. I can try to meld both together so that I can call:

find_index($key, \$data);

I guess a lot depends on how SvPV works. If it copies the data then I need another method.

dino

I've got it to work with:

unsigned long
find_index (key, data)
        unsigned long         key
        SV    *               data
    INIT:
       STRLEN          datalen;
       char * s;
       if ((!SvROK(data))
          || (SvTYPE(SvRV(data)) != SVt_PV))
       {
          XSRETURN_UNDEF;
       }
       s = SvPV(SvRV(data), datalen);
    CODE:
      RETVAL = find_index (key, s, datalen);
    OUTPUT:
      RETVAL

I'm still not sure if SvPV copies its internal data somewhere or just returns a pointer to it.

Comments please

dino

And finally,

from the perlapi manpage:

 SvPV    Returns a pointer to the string in the SV, or a
         stringified form of the SV if the SV does not con-
         tain a string.  Handles 'get' magic.
 
         char*   SvPV(SV* sv, STRLEN len)

so that should do it

dino