Re: Anonymous Data Structures

[FunkyMonk]

Anonymous hashes & arrays, as you stated, are just hashes and arrays that don't have a name. They are only useful when used as a reference:

my $hashref  = { A => 1, B => 2 };
my $arrayref = [ 1, 2, 3 ];

You would then access the elements of the references using ->:

print $hashref->{B}; # 2
print $arrayref->[2]; # 3

or by

print %$hashref{B}; # 2
print @$arrayref[2]; # 3

I much prefer ->, for what it's worth

[blazar]

I much prefer ->, for what it's worth

As a general rule, /me too. Though as with most things, there are situations in which it is best suited and situations in which the other way is preferable. Also, they're not equivalent in all respects.