>>>>> "David" == David Eason <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
David> I am not as knowledgeable about such things as you guys, but..
David> Isn't an anonymous array the same thing as an array literal?
No.
:-)
Well, for one thing, there's no such thing as an array literal.
So that's like saying "aren't horses and unicorns really the same thing?".
There is a *list literal*. That's a bunch of comma-separated values
in a list context:
@a = (1, 2, "buckle my shoe")
======================
An anonymous array is merely an array that does not have a direct
symbol-table or lexical-table name, but is always accessed by
dereferencing some array reference. One way to create such an array
reference is to enclose a list literal in square brackets:
my $plan_a = [1, 2, "buckle my shoe"]
But another equally valid way is to take a reference to a named
array, but let the name go out of scope:
my $plan_b;
{
my @name = (1, 2, "buckle my shoe");
$plan_b = \@name;
}
Both $plan_a and $plan_b now refer to anonymous arrays.
(In the past week, I just finished writing this stuff up for my next
book... see the bookshelves in six months or so.)
--
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