[Perl] Retrieve the reference

Question

Hello, with the hash below, I would like the clients array's reference :

my $this = 
{
    'name' => $name, 
    'max_clients' => $max_clients, 
    'clients' => ()
};

I can't do "\$this{'clients'};" to retrieve the reference.

Answer 1

You cannot store an array as a value in a hash table. You can only store a scalar value such as a reference to an array:

my $this = 
{
    'name' => $name, 
    'max_clients' => $max_clients, 
    'clients' => [],
};

See also perldoc perldsc.