References in perl are nothing but pointers but you can't use it like you do it in C with subtraction, increment and so on.
Perl is a higher level language the references have to be used the perl way. For instance references allow us to have a hash of arrays. A big array can be coverted into one element easily with a reference and you can use that as a value in a hash. For that matter you can even use function pointers are hash values. This is in fact a common perl idiom. Of course in perl you don't call it a function pointer; instead you say subroutine reference. Anyway now let us look at a hash. %h = ( 1 => "first", 2 => "second ); $h{1} is "first" and $h{2} is "second". Now %h = ( 1 => [1,2,45,100], 2 => $a); $a = [1,100,"girish"]; Of course the second line should come on top of first. Now you can do like this: $aref = $h{1}; @arr = @{$aref}; You can build an array of references like this also. @a = (1,2,3,4, [10,30,4], [1,3,4]); $a[#a][0], $a[#a][1], $a[#a][2] will give 1,3,4 You can also obtain a reference to a hash. %hs = ( 123 => 35, 100 => 20); $ref = \%hs; %hash = %{$ref}; Now, $hash{123} will give 35. $ perldoc perllol -Girish -- G3 Tech Networking appliance company web: http://g3tech.in mail: gir...@g3tech.in _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc