(bbfu) (array vs. list reversal) Re4: (OT) Interview questions -- your response?

[bbfu]

So we are not reversing the array...

...just reversing the list. List, array; array, list. While they are technically different (one is a Perl data structure, while the other is an anonymous collection of scalar values), I don't see how that difference really matters in this case. =) You're still using Perl's built-in to reverse a list/array, whether it's the original array, or the list of array indices. It's just semantics.

I mean, by those standards, reverse technically accepts a LIST, not an ARRAY (and will flatten multiple arrays into a single list, for example), so you should be able to do: @array = reverse @array;, since reverse isn't actually reversing the array but, rather, the list passed to it (after which, the reversed list is passed back and stored into the original array, replacing the original contents). Of course, as Aristotle points out, both of these methods (using Perl's built-in reverse, and your method of reversing the list of indices) fail the "in-place" clause of the original problem, so it's all moot. =)

bbfu
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