Question

chdir($g_var->{g_loc});

I found this line in some perl code I am working with and I could not figure out what the -> means. I mean I cant find the meaning of the syntax. By the way, g_loc is the name of a folder. What am i missing here ?

P.S. i am only 4 days into perl.

Answer 1

-> is dereferencing a reference. $g_var contains a reference to a %hash (elements of which you’d access using $hash{key}).

You can find more information about references in the perlreftut and perlref documentation. There’s also perllol about lists-of-lists (nested references).

You can open the documentation using perldoc perlreftut, etc.