From: ara.t.howard@...
Date: 2006-07-08T23:15:30+09:00
Subject: Re: storing and using references to variables

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006, Russell Fulton wrote:

> Hi,
>   I want to store a reference to a scalar variable (in perl parlance)
> in another variable and then assign a value to the stored variable.  I
> have done this for contiainers by simply assigning the container to the
> variable:
>
> ref = a = []
>
> ref[0] = 'x'
>
> leaves a[0] == 'x'
>
> as it should.
>
> I want to be able to do something similar but using a simple variable
> instead of an array. E.g. in perl
>
> $ref = \$a
>
> $$ref = 'x'
>
> but I can not find anything about explicitly dereferencing a variable.
>
> what I have done in the mean time is to use an array and only use the
> first element.
>
> Cheers, Russell

why wouldn't use simply use an object?

   class Container
     attr_accessor 'x'
   end

   c = Container.new

   c.x = 42
   p c.x   #=> 42

??

-a
-- 
suffering increases your inner strength.  also, the wishing for suffering
makes the suffering disappear.
- h.h. the 14th dali lama