[bug #66460] A documentation correction regarding an array nameref???

[Harry Clauson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66460>

                 Summary: A documentation correction regarding an array
nameref???
                   Group: The GNU Bourne-Again SHell
               Submitter: harryc
               Submitted: Tue 19 Nov 2024 06:40:06 AM UTC
                Category: None
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any


    _______________________________________________________

Follow-up Comments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue 19 Nov 2024 06:40:06 AM UTC By: Harry Clauson <harryc>
I was surprised that the documentation for "declare -n" states:

"The nameref attribute cannot be applied to array variables."

This appears to be incorrect as I frequently pass arrays using a nameref to
avoid the overhead of making a copy of large amounts of data.

For example:

####################################################
function doit {
        local -n blahref=$1
        echo ${blahref[2]} # displays z
        blahref[2]=a
        blahref[3]=b
        return 0
}

declare -a blah
blah=(x y z)

echo ${blah[2]} # displays z

doit blah
        echo ${blah[2]} # displays a
        echo ${blah[3]} # displays b
####################################################

In addition, when browsing the internet I see many questions regarding how to
pass an array by reference, and the answers do not mention simply using a
nameref.  And if not using a nameref it appears that they are actually passing
data by value which is inefficient, especially in the case of arrays.

This leads me to believe that users who have read the documentation are not
using this valuable feature, nor are they passing it along to others when
answering related questions.

Please let me know if I am missing something here or if the documentation
should be corrected in this regard.

Thank you!









    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?66460>

_______________________________________________
Message sent via Savannah
https://savannah.gnu.org/

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature