On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 05:30:17PM -0700, Bryan R Harris wrote:
>
> Quick question:
>
> When exactly are {} braces required? I notice when following references,
> $ { $var } and $$var both work identically. Do you ever actually need
> them?
I'm assuming you meant in the context of dereferencing only. Braces aren't
really required, unless you want Perl to do what you want it to. :)
The braces serve to disambiguate what you're dereferencing. No, braces are
not required with $$var, because there is only one way that can be read.
Braces are required when trying to dereference, for example, an array
element:
@foo = (\1, \2, \3);
print ${ $foo[0] };
If you omitted the braces:
$$foo[0]
You'd effectively be saying "retrieve the 0th element of the array reference
$foo", instead of what you meant "retrieve the 0th element of @foo and
dereference it". This may be a perfectly legitimate action, except that's
not what you intended.
I can't really put it in terms of a hard and fast rule. Perhaps another on
this list can.
Michael
--
Administrator www.shoebox.net
Programmer, System Administrator www.gallanttech.com
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