Foreach array with Perl

Question

It seems my code cannot iterate over an array stored in a hash.

What did I miss ?

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use Data::Dumper;

my $data = {array   => ['a', 'b', 'c']};

my @array = $data->{array};
print Dumper(@array); # It looks like $data->{array} is an array

print "Ref: ".ref($data->{array})."\n"; # And this array is indeed an array

foreach ($data->{array}) { print "$_\n"; } # But this doesn't work        
foreach (@array) { print "$_\n"; } # Neither this one

# But with a regular array it works...
my @myNames = ('Larry', 'Curly', 'Moe');
foreach (@myNames) { print "$_\n"; }

My output:

$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c'
        ];
$VAR1 = 'a';
Ref: ARRAY
ARRAY(0x8002bcf8)
ARRAY(0x8002bcf8)
Larry
Curly
Moe

I am pretty confused with REF/SCALAR types. Sometime Perl takes values as references sometime not. In this case, because I get 'ARRAY' from the ref function, I guess $->{array} doesn't give me an array but a reference to the array.

I have also tried @$data->{array} without success.

ccheneson · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-25 13:00:19Z

2

$data->{array} is indeed an array reference.

To dereference it, use @{} on the reference

foreach (@{$data->{array}}) { print "$_\n"; }

Edit: Or if you dont want to use {...} after @

my $arrayref = $data->{array}; 

foreach (@$arrayref ) { print "$_\n"; }

edited Aug 25, 2014 at 13:00

answered Aug 25, 2014 at 12:54

ccheneson

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1 Comment

nowox Over a year ago

Damned, I've tried @[...] and @(...) but not @{...}

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