RE: References (as in Perl)

["Gavin Kistner" <gavin.kistner@...>]

From: Rici Lake
> On 18-Dec-06, at 12:20 PM, Gavin Kistner wrote:
> >    local a = "foo"
> >    local b = "foo"
> >    local c = b
> > Are 3 strings allocated and maintained internally?

> Only one. Strings are indeed hashed and only unique sequences
> are stored in memory.
> 
> As you say, it's an implementation detail, but one of the 
> consequences is that string equality comparisons are simply a
> pointer comparison, and hence as fast as any other primitive
> equality comparison.

Ooh, that is an interesting consequence. So there's (some) extra
overhead in creating a string (the hashing), but if I happen to already
have the strings sitting around...well, then there's no reason to shove
them as keys in a table-as-hash in an attempt to speed up comparisons.

Thanks for the insight into the murky (to me) internals. :)