[Webdev] Perl references

[Justin Mason]

Kathryn Cassidy said:

> my $params = $cgi->Vars;
> $dbh->quote($$params{'moo'})
> 
> which evaluates to null.  I thought that $$params{'moo'} would be a scalar 
> like any other scalar even though I'm getting at it through a reference,
> why would quote not work on it?

Dunno, but as far as I know the conventional way to do that would be

  my $params = $cgi->Vars;
  $dbh->quote($params->{moo})

ie. using the -> syntax to dereference the hash access.   I for one would
be more comfortable this way as IMHO it's a little clearer about the
precedence etc.  Dunno if it would fix the prob or not though but it's
worth a try ;)

Also worth trying would be e.g.

	 my $params = $cgi->Vars;
	my $foo = $params->{moo};
	print "dbg $foo<br>\n";		# optional ;)
	$dbh->quote($foo);

Just to really make sure what you're passing in is definitely a scalar.

--j.