Return array in Perl

In Perl, an array can be returned from a subroutine as follows:

sub get_array {
    my @array = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
    return @array;
}
my @arr = get_array();

print "@arr\n"; # output: 1 2 3 4 5

In the above example, get_array() subroutine creates an array @array and returns it using the return statement. The returned array is then assigned to another array @arr.

Another way of returning an array from a subroutine is by returning a reference to the array using the backslash \ operator as follows:

sub get_array_ref {
    my @array = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
    return \@array;
}
my $arr_ref = get_array_ref();

my @arr = @{$arr_ref};

print "@arr\n"; # output: 1 2 3 4 5

In this example, get_array_ref() creates an array @array, returns a reference to the array using the \ operator, and assigns it to a scalar variable $arr_ref. The reference is then dereferenced using the @{$arr_ref} syntax to obtain the original array.