Why is buffer modified?

[FishingIwishIwas]

Can someone explain why/how the array @buf is modified in the following simple program. I thought only the variable $item is supposed to be modified.

my @buf = ("a1\n", "a2\n");
print @buf;
foreach my $item (@buf) {
chop $item;
}
print @buf;

#the result is
a1
a2
a1a1

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

Your "$item" becomes a reference (more like a synonym or dereferenced reference) to each element of the list (or in your case the array). Consequently, altering "$item" in the foreach loop actually alters your array.


Trojan.