yes, reference to an array (pointers are in C memory addresses but references are more complicated).

But it doesn't matter @array and $array_ref=\@array are just two different ways to represent the same array.

> Normally, I wouldn't create an empty array, but was pretty sure that I had to have the reference in place before the push, yes?

As I told you: No!

You are pushing to a variable starting with @. If the array doesn't exist already it will be allocated. If it exists but it's incompatible to push (like a hash) you,'ll get an error.

  DB<107> ref $a
 => ""
 
  DB<108> push @$a,1..3
 => 3
 
  DB<109> ref $a
 => "ARRAY"
 
  DB<110> $b={}
 => {}
 
  DB<111> push @$b,1..3
Not an ARRAY reference at (eval 44)[multi_perl5db.pl:644] line 2.
 
  DB<112> ref $b
 => "HASH"
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