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Chapter 4. References and Scoping

References can be copied and passed around like any other scalar. At any given time, Perl knows the number of references to a particular data item. Perl can also create references to anonymous data structures (structures that do not have explicit names) and create references automatically as needed to fulfill certain kinds of operations. Let's look at copying references and how it affects scoping and memory usage.



    		Chapter 1. Introduction
    		Chapter 2. Building Larger Programs
    		Chapter 3. Introduction to References
    		Chapter 4. References and Scoping
    		4.1 More than One Reference to Data
    		4.2 What if That Was the Name?
    		4.3 Reference Counting and Nested Data Structures
    		4.4 When Reference Counting Goes Bad
    		4.5 Creating an Anonymous Array Directly
    		4.6 Creating an Anonymous Hash
    		4.7 Autovivification
    		4.8 Autovivification and Hashes
    		4.9 Exercises
    		Chapter 5. Manipulating Complex Data Structures
    		Chapter 6. Subroutine References
    		Chapter 7. Practical Reference Tricks
    		Chapter 8. Introduction to Objects
    		Chapter 9. Objects with Data
    		Chapter 10. Object Destruction
    		Chapter 11. Some Advanced Object Topics
    		Chapter 12. Using Modules
    		Chapter 13. Writing a Distribution
    		Chapter 14. Essential Testing
    		Chapter 15. Contributing to CPAN
    		Appendix A. Answers to Exercises