http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1027047


in reply to Entering the land of Perl

Please, critique this.

You say you want to "count letters in a string" but you are counting all characters.

$letters{$1}++ while $seq =~ /([[:alpha:]])/g;


You shouldn't use prototypes.    And besides you are just copying the contents of the hash anyway which you could do more simply as:

sub sort_and_print_hash_keys { my %hash = @_;

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Re^2: Entering the land of Perl
by manbroski (Initiate) on Apr 04, 2013 at 23:52 UTC

    Good call on the letters versus characters. But as far as the prototype passing, I was certain that it enforces a pass by reference. Notice that I have to dereference it after the passage. So the hope is that there is no copying.

      Hi manbroski,

      "..Notice that I have to dereference it after the passage.." Why is that?

      Did you also notice your subroutine sort_and_print_hash_keys definition

      sub sort_and_print_hash_keys (\%) {..
      and how you eventually used the it like so:
      sort_and_print_hash_keys(%letters); # you passed a hash variable not a + hash ref.
      ".. But as far as the prototype passing, I was certain that it enforces a pass by reference..."

      If I may suggest, you will do well yielding the wisdom of jwkrahn, as regard the usage of prototype for this reason:

      When you use a reference prototype, like "\$", "\@", "\%" "...those symbols don't actually say that you must pass in a scalar reference, an array reference, and a hash reference. Rather, they say you must pass in a scalar variable, an array variable, and a hash variable. That means that the compiler insists upon seeing a properly notated variable of the given type, complete with "$", "@", or "%" in that slot. You must not use a backslash. The compiler silently supplies the backslash for you... "
      from Far More than Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know about Prototypes in Perl -- by Tom Christiansen
      -- by liverpole, under subheading Problems with Reference Prototypes

      Hope this helps.

      If you tell me, I'll forget.
      If you show me, I'll remember.
      if you involve me, I'll understand.
      --- Author unknown to me
      Notice that I have to dereference it after the passage. So the hope is that there is no copying.

      In your code you have:

      sub sort_and_print_hash_keys (\%) { my %hash = %{shift()}; foreach (sort keys %hash) { print "$hash{$_} "; } print "\n"; }

      Which is copying the entire hash.    If you didn't want to copy the hash you could do it like this:

      sub sort_and_print_hash_keys (\%) { my $hash = shift; foreach (sort keys %$hash) { print "$hash->{$_} "; } print "\n"; }