Thu, 16 Oct 2008

Containers and Values

NAME

"Perl 5 to 6" Lesson 10 - Containers and Values

LAST UPDATED

2015-02-26

Synopsis

    my ($x, $y);
    $x := $y;
    $y = 4;
    say $x;             # 4
    if $x =:= $y {
        say '$x and $y are different names for the same thing'
    }

DESCRIPTION

Perl 6 distinguishes between containers, and values that can be stored in containers.

A normal scalar variable is a container, and can have some properties like type constraints, access constraints (for example it can be read only), and finally it can be aliased to other containers.

Putting a value into a container is called assignment, and aliasing two containers is called binding.

    my @a = 1, 2, 3;
    my Int $x = 4;
    @a[0] := $x;     # now @a[0] and $x are the same variable
    @a[0] = 'Foo';   # Error 'Type check failed'

Types like Int and Str are immutable, ie the objects of these types can't be changed; but you can still change the variables (the containers, that is) which hold these values:

    my $a = 1;
    $a = 2;     # no surprise here

Binding can also be done at compile time with the ::= operator.

You can check if two things are bound together the =:= comparison operator.

MOTIVATION

Exporting and importing subs, types and variables is done via aliasing. Instead of some hard-to-grasp typeglob aliasing magic, Perl 6 offers a simple operator.

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