Returns a non-empty string if EXPR is a reference, the empty
string otherwise. If EXPR is not specified,
will be used. The
value returned depends on the type of thing the reference is a reference to.
Builtin types include:
You can think of
ref as a
The return value
indicates a reference to an lvalue that is not
a variable. You get this from taking the reference of function calls like
is returned if the reference points
to a version string.
indicates that the argument is a regular expression
If the referenced object has been blessed into a package, then that package
name is returned instead. But don't use that, as it's now considered
"bad practice". For one reason, an object could be using a class called
, or even
ref doesn't take into account
(in the Scalar::Util module) for boolean
for specific class checks and
Scalar::Util) for type checks. (See perlobj for details and a
See also perlref.