Perl Language Variables Hash References
Example
Hash references are scalars which contain a pointer to the memory location containing the data of a hash. Because the scalar points directly to the hash itself, when it is passed to a subroutine, changes made to the hash are not local to the subroutine as with a regular hash, but instead are global.
First, let's examine what happens when you pass a normal hash to a subroutine and modify it within there:
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
sub modify
{
my %hash = @_;
$hash{new_value} = 2;
print Dumper("Within the subroutine");
print Dumper(\%hash);
return;
}
my %example_hash = (
old_value => 1,
);
modify(%example_hash);
print Dumper("After exiting the subroutine");
print Dumper(\%example_hash);
Which results in:
$VAR1 = 'Within the subroutine';
$VAR1 = {
'new_value' => 2,
'old_value' => 1
};
$VAR1 = 'After exiting the subroutine';
$VAR1 = {
'old_value' => 1
};
Notice that after we exit the subroutine, the hash remains unaltered; all changes to it were local to the modify subroutine, because we passed a copy of the hash, not the hash itself.
In comparison, when you pass a hashref, you are passing the address to the original hash, so any changes made within the subroutine will be made to the original hash:
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
sub modify
{
my $hashref = shift;
# De-reference the hash to add a new value
$hashref->{new_value} = 2;
print Dumper("Within the subroutine");
print Dumper($hashref);
return;
}
# Create a hashref
my $example_ref = {
old_value => 1,
};
# Pass a hashref to a subroutine
modify($example_ref);
print Dumper("After exiting the subroutine");
print Dumper($example_ref);
This will result in:
$VAR1 = 'Within the subroutine';
$VAR1 = {
'new_value' => 2,
'old_value' => 1
};
$VAR1 = 'After exiting the subroutine';
$VAR1 = {
'new_value' => 2,
'old_value' => 1
};
