SPUG: Reference to a hash

[James Moore]

I find that when I'm using the kind of construction Jim describes it's
because I'm planning on doing some processing to the hash after creating
it:

      while (my $line = <STDIN>) {
        %hash = my_func($line);
        ...
        $hash{foo} = $bar;
        $things{$key} = \%hash;
      }

Rather than the anonymous hash construction using {}, I usually make the
hash a 'my' variable:

      while (my $line = <STDIN>) {
        my %hash = my_func($line);
        ...
        $hash{foo} = $bar;
        $things{$key} = \%hash;
      }

Doing it this way I find is slightly clearer than using
$things{$key}{foo} = $bar, plus it involves slightly less typing.  It's
really only an issue for slightly more complex operations.

I suspect that you get to this point naturally if you're using 'use
strict.'
Strict is your friend - don't attempt to write non-trivial perl code
without it.   

     ------------------------------------------------------------
                            James M. Moore
                          james at banshee.com
              Banshee Software: Web software development
                    Open Source / .NET / Embedded



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