Question

I am working on a Perl code using XML::DOM.

I found in Perl help(XML::DOM::Node) stating as below.

@list = $node->getChildNodes;        # returns a perl list
$nodelist = $node->getChildNodes;    # returns a NodeList (object reference)
for my $kid ($node->getChildNodes)   # iterate over the children of $node

If I pass it in my function as below.

&myfunction($node->getChildNodes)

I am not getting the reference to the list.

Is there any way to get the reference with out declaring temporary scalar variable, like below.

my $tmp=$node->getChildNodes;
&myfunction($tmp)

Thank you.

Answer 1

myfunction([ $node->getChildNodes ])

myfunction(scalar $node->getChildNodes)

The second avoids creating a new array and a new reference, but the first might be clearer.

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PS — Why are you telling Perl to ignore the prototype on myfunction? Don’t use &.