How can I create an anonymous scalar?

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

I want an anonymous scalar to which i can refer to from an unknown number of other scalars. The only thing I can come up with (I'm not that familiar with PERL, yet) is this (example code):

$variable     = "something";
$variableRef1 = \[ $variable ]->[ 0 ];
[download]

This makes it possible to change $variable without changing $$variableRef1 which is what I want. I want to use this in a loop where i give $variable different values but want a copy of each value, but only 1 copy and an unknown number of references to this one copy. How can I do this without constructing an anonymous array (or hash) and consume minimal time and memory?

Then later, if I change (in this example) $variableRef1 to refer to something else ($variable is also changed, so the refcount should be 0), PERL's garbage collection will free the now unused memory, right?

--
Alex

Comment on How can I create an anonymous scalar? Download Code

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Re: How can I create an anonymous scalar? by suaveant (Parson) on Jul 26, 2001 at 17:57 UTC
$sref = \"Hello World"; or $sref = \( ...something yielding a scalar value...); should give you an anonymous scalar ref `$variableRef1 = \[ $variable ]->[ 0 ];` [download] is just ugly... :) - Ant	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How can I create an anonymous scalar? by merlyn (Sage) on Jul 26, 2001 at 18:31 UTC
`my $anonref = do { \(my $x = 12345) };` [download] -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How can I create an anonymous scalar? by PrakashK (Pilgrim) on Jul 26, 2001 at 18:19 UTC
I am confused. Do you really want an anonymous scalar? You want to have several references to a scalar and also to be able to change the value of the scalar independently (not via the references). If so, you need to name that scalar with a scalar variable and it won't be anonymous. Anyway, what's wrong with a straight reference to a scalar? `$v = "something"; $ref1 = \$v; $ref2 = \$v; # both $ref1 and $ref2 point to the same variable. # change the value $v = "something else"; # both $ref1 and $ref2 will point to the change +d value $v2 = "new value"; $ref1 = \v2; # $ref2 now points to a new variable # $ref2 will continue to point to $v` [download] Have I totally misunderstood your question?	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: How can I create an anonymous scalar? by Anonymous Monk on Jul 27, 2001 at 10:21 UTC
Well, just a bit. I didn't want to change $$ref1 (and $$ref2) if I changed $v. The answer from Randal Schwartz (merlyn) is what I was looking for. Thanks anyway! -- Alex	[reply]