Re: [offtopic] perl newbie frustrated

["will trillich" <suppressed>]

On 7/13/06, Matthew <suppressed> wrote:
> Apologies for this being off-topic, but this is the best "perl resource"
> I have.


> my $test = [2, 4, 8];
> print $test;
>  >Array(0x3038303)
>
> Oh? That's an array format. OK. Try this:
>
> my @test = (2, 4, 8);
> print @test;
>  >248
>
> ??? Confused.
>
> If anyone could please explain what I missed on the differences between
> ( ) array's and [ ] array's, I'd appreciate it.

() is a LIST of values, perfect for plopping into an array:

   @a = (qw/one two three/, 22/7, pi())

the way you pick out elements of an array are with the [brackets]:

   print $a[two], $a[pi()].

so the perl wonks figured it would be cool to have insta-arrays at
your fingertips by using the brackets without an array name:

   $x = [$val,@array,&function];
   print $x->[1],$x->[-1];

usually this type of thing is more usefully applied to hashes:

 %x = (one=>1, nine=>9, fifty=>50);
 $x = {one=>1, two=>2, structure=>{one_one=>1.1,nine_two=>9.2},more=>'yup'}
 print $x->{structure}->{one_one};
or, more succinctly...
 print $x->{structure}{one_one};

see man perlref or man perlreftut for the full deal.

--
will trillich
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity." -- Eric Arthur
Blair (George Orwell)