Minimum
Viable
Perl
Chapter 1. Syntax

1.3. References

You will need to understand references. However its also the most frustrating and time consuming part of learning Perl for everyone. If you can master this you will be able to read and write Perl code. Be sure to read the section "Key Things to Remember" at the bottom!

What is a reference?

A reference is like a pointer. It's a scalar value containing the address of another value. Perl will not automatically dereference a variable for you. References are scalars so they always start with a $.

Array references

Also called array refs for short.

my @array = (1, 2, 3, 4);             # array
my $arrayref1 = \@array;              # array reference
my $arrayref2 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']; # array reference

# Access element 0 of the array
print $array[0];       # prints 1

# Dereference + access element 0
print $arrayref1->[0]; # prints 1
print $arrayref2->[0]; # prints 'a'

# A array reference inside a array reference
my $arrays_in_arrays = [a, b, c, ['roo', 'woo', 'loo']];

# How to dereference array references
my @array1 = @{ $arrays_in_arrays };      # (a, b, c ['roo', 'woo', 'loo'])
my @array2 = @$arrays_in_arrays;          # same but less typing
my @array3 = @{ $arrays_in_arrays->[3] }; # ('roo', 'woo', 'loo')

Hash references

Also called hash refs for short.

my %hash = (a => 1, b => 2, c => 3);        # hash
my $hashref1 = \%hash;                      # hash reference
my $hashref2 = {x => 11, y => 12, z => 13}; # hash reference

# Access hash value 
print $hash{a};       # prints 1

# Dereference + access hash value 
print $hashref1->{a}; # prints 1
print $hashref2->{x}; # prints 11

# A hash reference inside a hash reference
my $hashes_in_hashes = { 
    a => 1,
    b => 2,
    c => { x => 1, y => 2 },
};

# How to dereference hash references
my %hash1 = %{ $hashes_in_hashes };      # (a => 1, b => 2, c => {x => 1, y => 2})
my %hash2 = %$hashes_in_hashes;          # same but less typing
my %hash3 = %{ $hashes_in_hashes->{c} }; # (x => 1, y => 2)

Code references

AKA code refs, anonymous subroutines, anonymous functions, closures, or callbacks.

my $coderef = sub { print "stegasaurus" };
# Dereference and run the subroutine
$coderef->(); # prints "stegasaurus"

Key things to remember

Mastering this topic requires some memorization and a lot of practice. Key things to remember: