Returns a non-empty string if EXPR is a reference, the empty string otherwise. If EXPR is not specified,$_
will be used. The value returned depends on the type of thing the reference is a reference to. Builtin types include:
SCALARARRAYHASHCODEREFGLOBLVALUEFORMATIOVSTRINGRegexp
If the referenced object has been blessed into a package, then that package name is returned instead. You can think ofref
as atypeof
operator.
if (ref($r) eq "HASH") { print "r is a reference to a hash.\n";}unless (ref($r)) { print "r is not a reference at all.\n";}
The return valueLVALUE
indicates a reference to an lvalue that is not a variable. You get this from taking the reference of function calls likepos()
orsubstr()
.VSTRING
is returned if the reference points to aversion string.
The resultRegexp
indicates that the argument is a regular expression resulting fromqr//
.
See alsoperlref.
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