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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Adventure with references to lists and lists of references

I remember an old game I used to play on DEC 10 (and VAX and PDP-11) computers - the original adventure game, perhaps ([see here]) which was pure text / instruction based and you traveled North, South, East and West through the colossal cave. And there was one are - the maze - where you could get rather lost between a little maze of twisting passages, little maze of twisty passages, little twisty maze of passages, maze of little twisting passages, maze of little twisty passages, maze of twisting little passages, maze of twisty little passages, twisting little maze of passages, twisting maze of little passages, twisty little maze of passages and a twisty maze of little passages!

And I was reminded about that the other day when I was differentiating in Perl between a list of scalars, a list of references to scalars, and a reference to a list of scalars.

A series of scalars - held in a collections that's ordered (numbered from 0 upwards and sortable) is a list in Perl ... and you can create a list of scalars using round brackets:
  @numbers = (10,20,30,40);

If you want to hold pointers / references / addresses of scalars rather than the scalars themselves in a list, you'll add an extra \ character:
  @again = \(10,20,30,40);
In Perl terms, that looks like a single pointer to the list but it's not - it's an exception to the usual syntax, and it returns a whole list of pointers.

If you're really looking for a single pointer to a whole list, you'll use square brackets:
  $further = [10,20,30,40];

So ...
A list of scalars (@numbers):
  10 20 30 40
A list of references to scalars (@again):
  SCALAR(0x100800f20) SCALAR(0x100800f30) SCALAR(0x100800f40) SCALAR(0x100800f50)
and a reference to a list (of scalars, but we can't tell that from the output) ($further):
  ARRAY(0x10082c270)

There's an extended example - showing how hashes and references to hashes and context fits in too - [here].
(written 2010-12-26, updated 2011-01-03)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
P217 - Perl - More than Simple Lists and Hashes!
  [43] Hash of lists in Perl - (2004-09-09)
  [293] Course follow-ups - (2005-04-27)
  [1514] Autovivification - the magic appearance of variables in Perl - (2008-01-21)
  [2241] Perl references - $$var and \$var notations - (2009-06-15)
  [2840] Just pass a pointer - do not duplicate the data - (2010-06-30)
  [2877] Further more advanced Perl examples - (2010-07-19)
  [2996] Copying - duplicating data, or just adding a name? Perl and Python compared - (2010-10-12)
  [3007] Setting up a matrix of data (2D array) for processing in your program - (2010-10-21)
  [3072] Finding elements common to many lists / arrays - (2010-11-26)
  [3118] Arrays of arrays - or 2D arrays. How to program tables. - (2011-01-02)
  [3399] From fish, loaves and apples to money, plastic cards and BACS (Perl references explained) - (2011-08-20)
  [3406] Not multidimentional arrays - but lists of lists. Much more flexible. Perl! - (2011-08-26)
  [3444] Take the dog on a lead - do not carry her. Perl references. - (2011-09-17)
  [3577] How to do multidimensional arrays (or rather lists and hashes) in Perl - (2012-01-14)
  [3906] Taking the lead, not the dog, for a walk. - (2012-10-28)


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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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