Perl array hash - strict refs

Question

this is probably simple for most, but I have a Perl script where I am ot using strict, and use this syntax:

$welcome_data[$x]{email}       = $data[0];

It works fine. Now, when I enable strict:

$welcome_data[$x]{email}       = $data[0];
Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use

Can anyone help with what I am doing wrong??

Many thanks

Answer 1

$welcome_data[$x]{email}

is short for

$welcome_data[$x]->{email}

In other words, $welcome_data[$x] is expected to be a reference (or undef ^[1] ). However, in your case, it contained an empty string. It's as is you were doing

${""}{email}

That's obviously not what you wanted to do. But fortunately for you, this is exactly the kind of bug strict refs is designed to catch. Now you can go fix wherever you are assigning an empty string to $welcome[$x] .

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1. If it's undef, Perl will autovivifiy a reference to a new anonymous hash for you as if you had used

    ( $welcome_data[$x] //= {} )->{email}