David Thole <dth...@gmail.com> wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc: >I read this....and am a tiny bit confused about the actual problem. > >It's not exactly complex to realize that something like: >a = b = array >that a and b both point to the array.
??? What are you talking about? First of all you should post actual code, not pseudo-code because pseudo-code leads to misunderstandings. Did you mean @a = @b = @array Second what do you mean by "pointing"? That is a very ambiguous term. if you do the assignment as written above then @a and @b will be _copies_ of @array. If you want two additional references to the same array insted then you have to create that reference first and assign that reference to $a and $b instead of copying the array, see "perldoc perlref" for details. And remember, references are scalars, no matter if they reference other scalars or arrays. >Logically speaking, I'm not sure how one could assume that the same >assignment would yield a and b point to the same duplicate array. If Now what? The same array or a duplicate array? Two very different and mutually exclusive things. >that was the case, why not do: >a = array.. >b = array.. Which, after correcting the obvious syntax errors is the same as the code above. >I know with what you were complaining about a few days ago, .clear makes >perfect sense. If a and b point to the same array, clear should clear They don't point, they are copies. And what do you mean by "clear"? >both arrays. Again, if you didn't want that to happen, create a >duplicate array. But that is what that code above does. If you want references then create references. jue -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list