[VPM] Help in reference

[Darren Duncan]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004, Philip Yuson wrote:
> I am having a problem with a script.
> The script defines two instaces of a class ($o an $j of package parse)
> The parse package defines an array reference. For some reason, it 
> defines the same reference address for both packages:
> 
> sub	build {
> 	my $self = shift;
> 	my $a = [];
> 	return $a;
> }
> 
> my $o_a = $o->build;
> my $j_a = $j->build;
> 
> if you print $o_a and $j_a, they both have the same reference address: 
> ex: ARRAY(0X94ce680)
> 
> The build method is a lot complicated but I just shortened it.
> 
> Is this a bug in Perl or is this a bug in my program?

Does this bug still occur in your shortened version?  If it does, 
then...

Try renaming $a to 
something else.  The names $a and $b have special meanings to Perl, like 
$_ does, though possibly only in certain contexts like explicit sorting.  
See if it works with a name like $foo instead of $a. 

-- Darren Duncan