1. *varAlias is a typeglob which is sort of a window into the symbol table where all the uses of varAlias are kept. For example, *varAlias{SCALAR} points to the scalar value referenced by $varAlias while *varAlias{ARRAY} points to the array referenced by @varAlias. (It's a bit more complicated than that but I think this covers the main point.) Since $globvalue is a scalar, *varAlias refers to a scalar value.

2. It depends on whether there was a reference in %thepackage:: . The code $reftype = ref $varAlias is checking whether the value in $varAlias is a reference to something. The function ref returns true (actually the data type the reference refers to) or false ("") if $varAlias is not a reference. Thus, if there is no value assigned to $reftype, then it is likely you did not have any references in the %thepackage:: symbol table.

3. use strict requires variables to be predeclared before use (among other things) Declare $varAlias with my or our before use and it will compile.

Try perldoc perldata for info on typeglobs and perldoc -f ref for info on the function ref.

PJ
We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge - Rutherford D. Rogers
What good is knowledge if you have to pull teeth to get it - anonymous

In reply to Re: Declareing something with a * by periapt
in thread Declareing something with a * by Scarborough

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.