How do I interact with a Perl object that has a hash attribute?

Question

I have a class with several variables, one of which is a hash (_runs):

sub new
{
    my ($class, $name) = @_;
    my $self = {
        _name => $name,
                


        

Answer 1

You are storing references to array or hashes in your object. To use them with standard functions you'll need to dereference them. For example:

@{ $self->{_array_ref_key} }; 
%{ $self->{_hash_ref_key} };

If you need pass parameters to standard function:

push( @{ $self->{_array_ref_key} }, $some_value );
for my $hash_key ( keys %{ $self->{_hash_ref_key} }) {
    $self->{_hash_ref_key}{$hash_key}; ## you can access hash value by reference
}

Also $self->{_hash_ref_key}{$hash_key} syntax is shortcut for $self->{_hash_ref_key}->{$hash_key} (which can make for sense if you see it first time).

Also take a look at corresponding manual page.