note
Eliya
<p> The reference refers to the <i>scalar</i> retrieved via <c>$a[0]</c>, not the array index [0]. The reference knows nothing about the array that scalar came from. And the scalar will exist as long as its refcount is > 0. </p>
<c>
$ perl -MDevel::Peek -E'@a=qw(a b c); $r=\$a[0]; Dump $r; @a=(); Dump $r'
SV = IV(0xa95bc0) at 0xa95bd0
REFCNT = 1
FLAGS = (ROK)
RV = 0xa77998
SV = PV(0xa75c20) at 0xa77998
REFCNT = 2 <---
FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
PV = 0xa8ee40 "a"\0
CUR = 1
LEN = 16
SV = IV(0xa95bc0) at 0xa95bd0
REFCNT = 1
FLAGS = (ROK)
RV = 0xa77998
SV = PV(0xa75c20) at 0xa77998
REFCNT = 1 <---
FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
PV = 0xa8ee40 "a"\0
CUR = 1
LEN = 16
</c>
<p> (note the refcounts) </p>
970288
970326