Stuart White wrote: > I'm having trouble returning a hash from a subroutine, > and an array from a different subroutine. "Beginning > Perl" said I could return a list, I can't get it to > work. Must the hash and array really be a reference > to the hash and array in order to return them?
In brief, *Yes* You should get comfortable with this, if you have any desire to be a programmer. No matter what language you work in, power programming will largely depend on an understanding of references, and their close cousins, pointers. In not so brief, yes and no. It seems like the code should have returned a list of elements. Unfortunately, there is only one element, since you overwrite the whole array each time through the loop. I'm pretty sure the logic would have p[opulated the array other than this. It would still be quite wasteful, since this whole list would have to be recopied, where an anobynous hash would have already been packed for transit. I would really suggest that you overcome whatever resistance you have to working with references. If you approach them fresh, they are really rather straightforward. Put a little energy into getting over this hump in the learning curve, and you can reap benefits in all your programming efforts. Joseph -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>
