Arrays - how to reference a split expression in perl. Dereferencing in perl. References are commonly used when you are returning a large object or data structure (for example an array or hash) from a subroutine.
Instead of returning a copy of the entire data structure, you return a pointer to the structure. This makes your programs more efficient. You can also use references to subroutines and scalars. When you want to actually use the values in these variables, you need to dereference the pointer. This page shows you how this works in Perl. Arrays - how to reference a split expression in perl. Arrays - how to reference a split expression in perl.