Re^3: Global symbol requires explicit package name

[greengaroo]

Exactly! If you know you will pass a large structure to a subroutine, better pass it as a reference! Like this:

# Calling routine
routine ( $v1, $v2, \@array );

sub routine {
my ( $fh, $h, $keys ) = @_;
...
# Dereference the array in a loop:
foreach my $key ( @{$keys} ) {

[ColonelPanic]

Yeah, but if you are only passing a couple of scalars, along with a single array (as in the original sub design), then passing by reference is not necessarily superior. It depends on what you are doing. Not passing by reference allows for more flexible calls to the sub:

    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, @values[1..5]);
    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, $value1, $value2, $value3);
    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, split(/\s/, $string));

With pass by reference, these would have messier syntax.

[greengaroo]

Yes, but you can still use an ArrayRef, with the square brackets:

    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, [@values[1..5]]);
    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, [$value1, $value2, $value3]);
    scalar_and_array_sub($foo, $bar, [split(/\s/, $string)]);

But I agree with you, if you don't pass too many arguments, you should use an Array instead of an ArrayRef.

[ColonelPanic]

The first example doesn't provide equivalent functionality, however. When an array slice is passed normally, modifying @_ will modify the original array. But this makes an anonymous copy of the array slice, which is discarded after the function call.